Working Papers

• Do Adverse Childhood Experiences Shape Violent and Abusive Adult Behavior? (Job Market Paper)

Abstract: Family violence is pervasive and has detrimental economic consequences. Nevertheless, very little is known about how childhood experiences influence this behavior. This paper explores long-run determinants of family violence by linking exposure to adverse circumstances in childhood to the perpetration of abuse and neglect in adulthood. Exploiting spatial and temporal variation in childhood exposure to an armed conflict from ages 0 to 16, I find that exposed men are less likely to perpetrate spousal violence and to display controlling behaviors. Additionally, children of exposed fathers are less likely to experience violent disciplining at home. My results suggest that adult economic, education, and marriage market outcomes, along with attitude toward domestic violence are likely operative channels. Assessing the implications of empirical results on theories of domestic violence, I find that exposed men have a dislike for using violence at home.

• Victims of Consequence: Evidence on Child Outcomes using Microdata from a Civil War (with Giri Subramaniam)

Abstract: We study the impact of violent events on contemporaneous parental decisions related to their children regarding child labor, education, and healthcare utilization. Using spatial and temporal variation from a unique database of local-level violent events due to a civil war in Nepal, we find that an increase in violent events: (i) leads to an increase in hours worked, with the effect being substantial for agricultural work done by young boys; (ii) results in a reduced likelihood of attending school, along with a decline in years of education; and (iii) decreases the likelihood of parents taking their children to visit a healthcare facility to seek curative care. Parents’ fear of victimization due to increased mortality risks may affect decisions related to their children. This mechanism, suggested by theory, is likely to be an operative channel.

Work in Progress

• Is Aid Well Targeted? Evidence from the Earthquake in Nepal. (with Navin Kumar)
• Brain Gain and Emigration: Does an Increased Opportunity for Low-skill Emigration Improve Female Schooling?
• Preference Estimation in Polygyny using a Two-Sided Matching Model. (with Gian Caspari)