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Intimate Partner Violence and Income: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit

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755

Abstract

We estimate the impact of an exogenous increase in income on the prevalence
and counts of intimate partner violence (IPV). We exploit time and family-size
variation in the earned income tax credit (EITC) by comparing victimization
of women with one child or more with that of women with no children before
and after the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Expansion of the credit
reduces both reports of physical or sexual assaults and counts of physical or sex-
ual assaults per 100 women surveyed; the effects were strongest for groups more
likely to experience IPV and be eligible for the EITC: unmarried women and
unmarried Black women. If increased income is the only channel by which the
EITC decreases IPV, an additional $1,000 of after-tax income decreases physical
or sexual violence toward unmarried low- educated women by 9.73 percent.

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