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. 2011 Summer;46(3):518-538.
doi: 10.1353/jhr.2011.0024.

Poverty, Violence and Health: The Impact of Domestic Violence During Pregnancy on Newborn Health

Anna Aizer  1
Affiliations

Poverty, Violence and Health: The Impact of Domestic Violence During Pregnancy on Newborn Health

Anna Aizer. J Hum Resour. 2011 Summer.

Abstract

Two percent of women in the US suffer from intimate partner violence annually, with poor and minority women disproportionately affected. I provide evidence of an important negative externality associated with domestic violence by estimating a negative and causal relationship between violence during pregnancy and newborn health, exploiting variation in the enforcement of laws against domestic violence for identification. I find that hospitalization for an assault while pregnant reduces birth weight by 163 grams. This sheds new light on the infant health production process as well as observed income gradients in health given that poor mothers are disproportionately affected by violence.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Racial Differences in Assault Rates All Pregnant Women 1991–2002
Figure 2
Figure 2
Trends in Hospitalization for Assault Among All Women 19–34
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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