We study the impact of trade-induced changes in labor market conditions on violence within the household. We exploit the local labor demand shocks generated by Cambodia’s WTO accession to assess how changes in the employment of women relative to men affected the risk of intimate partner violence. We document that men in districts facing larger tariff reductions experienced a significant decline in paid employment, whereas women in harder-hit districts increased their entry into the labor force. These changes in employment patterns triggered backlash effects by increasing intimate partner violence, without changes in marriage, fertility, psychological distress, or household consumption.

We estimate the causal effects of education on the intergenerational transmission of violence against children by exploiting an extension of compulsory schooling in Turkey. Using a regression-discontinuity design, we find that the reform increased maternal education by one year, with stronger effects for women raised in rural areas. The increase in education among rural women led to a reduction in the perpetration of child physical abuse but only by mothers who were physically abused by their own families during childhood. Exploring potential channels, we document that these women were also more likely to experience improved mental health outcomes.

Decades of campaigns have cautioned households in Bangladesh about waterborne contaminants such as arsenic. In addition to switching water sources, mothers can protect young children from contaminated water by breastfeeding longer. We exploit time series variation in whether children were born before or after a nationwide information campaign and geographic variation in exposure to arsenic. We find that mothers breast-feed children longer in response to the campaign, especially when they have less access to uncontaminated wells, and that infants are more likely to be exclusively breast-fed. We find consistent evidence of lower mortality rates and diarrheal incidence for infants.