Long-term effects of the Paraguayan War (1864-1870) on intimate partner violence

Abstract

This study investigates the long-term effects of the Paraguayan War (1864–1870) on intimate partner violence (IPV). The identification relies on a novel historical dataset that uses the distance from regions to military camps during the war and military camps' sizes to proxy the impact of the war across Eastern Paraguay. The likelihood of modern-day IPV is found to be 5.54% higher than the average in areas that were more heavily affected by the war. Consistent with relative improvements in female labour participation and human capital posing a threat to the traditional male breadwinner role in households, the evidence confirms that reduced gender differences in the labour market and human capital accumulation after the war increased the long-term likelihood of IPV. As non-gender types of interpersonal violence are found to be unaffected in the long run, I conclude that the gender norm caused by the war enabled IPV, arguing that women's empowerment is a multi-faceted phenomenon wherein some dimensions, such as IPV, have a greater influence than others.