Seetha Menon, University of Southern Denmark

"The effect of domestic violence on cardiovascular risk factors"

Abstract

The prevalence of metabolic risk factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as hypertension and high plasma glucose levels have seen a substantial increase across India. India also has a high prevalence of domestic violence and previous studies have not reached a consensus on whether there exists a causal relationship between domestic violence and CVD risk factors. This study fills this gap by providing new empirical evidence from a large nationally representative survey in India. In line with previous studies, when conditional on a large set of observable characteristics, OLS estimates are inconclusive. To deal with potential sources of endogeneity, I propose a novel instrument which provides plausibly exogenous variation in domestic violence through dowry, the price of gold at the time of marriage. IV estimates show a consistent positive effect of domestic violence on prevalence of hypertension amongst women. Interestingly, there is no evidence of such an effect on men.

Contact person: Ines Ferreira