Domestic abuse encompasses a range of damaging behaviors beyond physical violence, including economic and emotional abuse. We analyze the impact of cohabiting with an abusive partner on victims’ economic outcomes. In so doing, we highlight the systematic role of economic suppression in such relationships. Using Finnish administrative data and a matched control event study design, along with a within-individual comparison of outcomes across relationships, we document three new facts. First, women who begin relationships with (eventually) physically abusive men suffer large and significant earnings and employment falls immediately upon cohabiting with the abusive partner. Second, the decline in economic outcomes is non-monotonic in women’s pre-cohabitation outside options. Third, men who are violent against women in any capacity impose economic costs on all their female partners, even those who do not report physical violence. To rationalize these findings, we develop a new dynamic model of abusive relationships where women do not perfectly observe their partner’s type, and abusive men have an incentive to use economic suppression to sabotage women’s outside options and their ability to later exit the relationship.

中文翻译：

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虐待关系的动态


家庭虐待还包括身体暴力以外的一系列破坏性行为，包括经济和情感虐待。我们分析与施虐伴侣同居对受害者经济成果的影响。在此过程中，我们强调了经济压制在这种关系中的系统性作用。使用芬兰的行政数据和匹配的控制事件研究设计，以及跨关系结果的个人内部比较，我们记录了三个新事实。首先，与（最终）施虐男性建立关系的女性会遭受巨额收入，并且在与施虐伴侣同居后，就业机会会立即下降。其次，经济成果的下降在女性同居前的外部选择中是非单调的。第三，以任何身份对妇女实施暴力的男性都会给所有女性伴侣带来经济损失，甚至是那些没有报告身体暴力的女性伴侣。为了合理化这些发现，我们开发了一种新的虐待关系动态模型，其中女性不能完全观察伴侣的类型，而施虐男性有动机利用经济压制来破坏女性的外部选择以及她们后来退出关系的能力。