Male Education and Domestic Violence in Turkey: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Abstract

We utilize a natural experiment, an education reform increasing compulsory schooling from five to eight years in Turkey, to obtain endogeneity-robust estimates of the effect of male education on the incidence of abusive and violent behaviour against women. We find that husband`s education lowers the probability of suffering physical, emotional and economic violence. The only aspect of violence not affected by spouse's education is sexual violence. Schooling also lowers the likelihood that the marriage was arranged against the woman's will, and makes men less inclined to engage in socially unacceptable behaviours such as drinking, gambling, and drug abuse. We also find that women whose mothers or whose husbands' mothers experienced domestic violence are more likely to suffer violence themselves.

Keywords: education, domestic violence, autonomy of women, difference-in-difference-in-differences, instrumental variable

JEL Classification: H520, I260, J120