The Economic Impacts of Rape (with Abi Adams, Kristiina Huttunen, and Emily Nix), Revise and Resubmit at American Economic Review
Rape and sexual assault are common worldwide: one in twelve women across 28 EU countries have experienced a rape (European Institute for Gender Inequality, 2012). Yet there is no systematic evidence on how sexual violence affects women's economic outcomes. We harness detailed administrative data from Finland to provide new empirical facts on the economic effect of rape on victims and its spillovers. A third of police reports for rape involved victims younger than 21 years old at the time of the assault. We show that the age-25 employment and college completion rates of younger victims are 12.8 p.p and 10 p.p lower respectively than those of other young women with the same (pre-event) GPA and family background. For older victims, we use a matched difference-in-difference design to show that rape has a large and persistent economic impact on women: victims' employment falls by 7.8 percentage points and their labor market earnings decline 16.5% relative to observationally equivalent women in the five years following the assault. These results are robust to controlling for a variety of shocks preceding rape that could make it more likely for a woman to be victimized and independently suppress her economic outcomes. We also document important spillovers of these crimes to the victim's parents and peers. Mothers and fathers experience significant declines in their employment and female schoolmates experience a deterioration in mental health. Last, we show that higher clearance rates of rape cases mitigate the negative impacts on victims. Together, these results indicate that preventing and addressing sexual violence is a vital economic issue.
Effects of Housing Subsidies on Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from the Family Options Study (with K. Pun Winichakul)
Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects individuals globally: one-third of women worldwide and 41% of women in the US report experiencing some form of violence from their intimate partners (WHO, 2021; Leemis et al., 2022). Yet, we know little about the effect of living situations on intimate partner violence and its underlying mechanisms. This paper uses a novel panel dataset of US homeless families to study the effect of housing access on the incidence of IPV. We find that housing access reduces IPV incidence by 5.6 percentage points, a 62% reduction relative to the control group mean. This effect is most precisely estimated for a housing program that offers a potentially indefinite subsidy and greater individual choice over living options, akin to a housing voucher. We identify higher rates of living in independent housing and reductions in financial stress as key mechanisms behind the decrease in IPV, while labor market improvements are not supported and partnership effects are more nuanced. We also find suggestive evidence that housing access affects children’s outcomes through a reduction in IPV. Our paper has important policy implications for how housing access could reduce IPV incidence and contribute to improved gender equality
Effects of Parental Death on Youth (with Moira Daly, Mathias Jensen, and Yunbin Zhang)
Early-life shocks, such as the loss of a parent, can have lasting effects on inequality and human capital development. We study the effects of parental death during adolescence on both immediate and long-term outcomes, including education, mental health, criminal behavior, teenage pregnancy, and labor market performance. Using four decades of population-wide Danish administrative data and a difference-in-differences design with soon-to-be-treated children as controls, we provide causal evidence that parental death reduces high school graduation rates and tertiary educational enrollment while increasing the uptake of mental health treatment. Behavioral responses to parental death differ by gender: girls show an increased risk of teenage pregnancy, while boys demonstrate a higher likelihood of engaging in criminal activity. These more immediate effects lead to a long-term reduction in annual earnings. We find that living closer to grandparents, higher school quality, and a greater share of female teachers can mitigate some of these negative effects.
Resettlement Agency Resource Strain and Refugee Outcomes: Evidence from Catholic Sex Abuse Scandals (with Jia Huang, Neil Silveus, and K. Pun Winichakul), Revision Requested by Journal of Population Economics
Partner agencies are an important part of the United States refugee resettlement process. In this paper, we explore how resource strains on partner resettlement organizations shape refugee outcomes. We consider reduced refugee support provided by the largest partner entity, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, resulting from revelations of sexual abuse allegations across US dioceses. Combining this information with recent administrative data and a novel approach to identify likely refugees at the diocese level, we find that resource strain resulting from newly disclosed abuse scandals leads to reductions in refugee participation in federal social safety net programs. We also find suggestive evidence of negative effects on labor market outcomes such as employment and wages. When evaluating mechanisms, we note the negative impact of scandals on organizational financial and non-financial resources which reduces their capacity to offer comprehensive services to refugees. Our paper provides important insights to consider when designing a refugee resettlement process to best support this vulnerable population.