The Effect of Unconditional Transfer Payment on Intimate Partner Violence

• In Event: Families and Exposure to Violence: Evidence from Social Policy and Institutional Interventions

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a prevalent global public health and human rights issue, affecting millions of individuals—predominantly women—across diverse socioeconomic contexts. In recent years, unconditional cash transfer programs (UCTs) have emerged as a widely adopted social protection tool to alleviate poverty and improve household welfare. By providing direct financial resources without behavioral conditions, these programs have the potential to alter intra-household dynamics, particularly in contexts where economic stress and financial dependence are key drivers of conflict and violence. However, the relationship between UCTs and IPV is theoretically ambiguous. On one hand, increased financial security may empower recipients—often women—and reduce stress-related conflict, thereby lowering the risk of violence. On the other hand, shifts in bargaining power within households may lead to backlash, potentially increasing IPV in the short term. Against this backdrop, our study seeks to examine the causal impact of pandemic-era transfer payments in the United States—specifically, the Economic Impact Payments (EIP) and the Advance Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments—on intimate partner violence. We employ a difference-in-differences design to analyze the National Crime Victimization Survey data. We find that a $1,000 increase in total EIP and CTC received between April 2020 and June 2022 increased physical IPV by 0.9 percentage points, corresponding to an approximate 20 percent increase relative to the baseline. This effect was more pronounced among Black women (33.5 percent), unmarried women (25.9 percent), older women aged 30-40 years (23.6 percent), and high-income women (23.2 percent). In contrast, the estimated increase in IPV among White women is smaller, at 13.5 percent. The unintended adverse effect of transfer payments underscores the need to complement IPV prevention and counseling services with accessible reporting mechanisms to enhance both economic security and personal safety. This emphasizes the importance of pairing income support policies with strengthened IPV-prevention infrastructure and responsive service delivery systems.

Author

• Georgina Maku Cobla, Georgia Institute of Technology
  Presenting Author