RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Poverty, Violence, and Health
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 518
OP 538
DO 10.3368/jhr.46.3.518
VO 46
IS 3
A1 Anna Aizer
YR 2011
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/46/3/518.abstract
AB Two percent of women in the United States suffer from intimate partner violence annually, with poor and minority women disproportionately affected. I provide evidence of an important negative externality associated with domestic violence by estimating a negative and causal relationship between violence during pregnancy and newborn health, exploiting variation in the enforcement of laws against domestic violence for identification. I find that hospitalization for an assault while pregnant reduces birth weight by 163 grams. This sheds new light on the infant health production process as well as observed income gradients in health given that poor mothers are disproportionately affected by violence.