How Domestic Violence is a Threat to Economic Development

IMF Blog, November 24, 2021

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The surveys found that more than 30 percent of women in the region had experienced some form of domestic abuse.
Data sources used:
- US Agency for International Development’s Demographic and Health Survey collected from the 1980s to the present, asking women specific questions about mistreatment.
- Nightlight satellite data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to proxy economic activity at the district level.
Coverage: data come from 18 sub-Saharan African countries, covering more than 224 districts and more than 440,000 women representative of around 75 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s female population.

An increase in violence against women by 1 percentage point is associated with a 9 percent lower level of economic activity (proxied by nighttime lights).
Previous studies estimated domestic violence costs a given economy between 1 and 2 percent of GDP; those studies use simple accounting mechanisms and often don’t account for potential reverse causality.
Based on the study’s connection, if sub-Saharan African countries in the sample were to reduce the level of gender-based violence closer to the world average of 23 percent of women experiencing abuse, it could result in long-term GDP gains of around 30 percent.

Short-term effects:
- Women from abusive homes are likely to work fewer hours and be less productive when they do work.
Long-term effects:
- High levels of domestic violence can decrease the number of women in the workforce, minimize women’s acquisition of skills and education, and result in less public investment overall as more public resources are channeled to health and judicial services.
The observed decline in economic activity is driven mainly by a significant drop in female employment: the physical, psychological, and emotional violence that women experience makes it more difficult for them to achieve or maintain a job.

Economic downturns (such as the pandemic) can contribute to an uptick in domestic violence, increasing the economic costs of domestic violence compared to normal times.
Domestic violence is more detrimental to economic activity in:
- Countries without protective laws against domestic violence.
- Countries rich in natural resources where extractive industries are more likely to crowd out more women-centered jobs and lead to less economic power among females.
The economic costs of violence against women are lower in countries like South Africa, where there is a lower gender gap in education between partners and where women have more decision-making power than in other sub-Saharan African countries.

Strengthen laws and protections against domestic violence to:
- Deter violence against women.
- Protect victims of domestic violence.
- Promote women’s participation in the workforce.
Improve education opportunities for girls to reduce the gender education gap, giving women more economic freedom and less ability to be influenced and controlled by men.
In building back from the pandemic, prioritize policies to support women and combat gender-based violence because the economic costs are higher during downturns and could make recovery more challenging.

Source: IMF blog article "How Domestic Violence is a Threat to Economic Development" by Rasmane Ouedraogo and David Stenzel, November 24, 2021.