Education and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration: Evidence from Siblings

Maria Laura di Tommaso, University of Turin
Silvia Mendolia, University of Turin
Silvia Palmaccio, University of Turin
Giulia Savio, University of Turin

Little is known about whether education can be an effective tool for preventing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) perpetration. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we provide the first evidence on the effect of education on physical and sexual violence perpetration. To account for endogeneity, we use sibling fixed-effects models. Our findings show that a 1-point increase in Grade Point Average (GPA) reduces the likelihood of committing physical violence on the partner by 7.6 percentage points in early to mid-adulthood. No significant effect is found for sexual violence. Our findings are robust to treatment effect bounds and to accounting for individuals' genetic predisposition for cognitive performance by including polygenic scores for education.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Human Capital, Education, and Work

See extended abstract.