Workshop on the Economics of Violence Against Women

Professor Sonia Bhalotra organized a two-day workshop bringing together economists from the UK, Europe, America and India to share ongoing research and its implications for policy designed to address violence against women.

Eighteen research papers were presented at the workshop on 18 and 19 October in the University of Warwick’s Radcliffe Conference Centre. They covered domestic violence, sexual harassment in public spaces and workplace sexual harassment. Topics also included the impact of addiction and financial distress on intimate partner violence, law enforcement, safer public transport, and the role of culture and information biases in addressing violence against women.

Professor Bhalotra said: “My goal for the workshop was to provide a space for the collaborative exploration of new strategies for addressing violence against women, through offering a platform for participants to share their current work and their findings on the effectiveness of interventions to address violence against women; and to create the opportunity for informal knowledge exchange and networking.

“A range of speakers at different stages of their careers – including PhD students - joined us in Warwick from a wide range of institutions including Stockholm, Chicago, the World Bank, Yale, LSE, Kings, Imperial College, Exeter, Royal Holloway, Northeastern, Bocconi, and Trinity College Dublin.

“The research discussed examined the issue of violence against women in developed and developing countries, including the US, UK, Sweden, India, Bangladesh, Chile, Brazil, Pakistan, Turkey, and Mozambique.”

Insights from the presentations included:-

• The current risk assessment procedure used by the UK police forces to predict cases of domestic abuse does not do well. Professor Jeff Grogger presented evidence that algorithms based on administrative data outperform current protocols.
• Even deeply ingrained attitudes and beliefs critical to effective policing can be positively influenced. Girija Borker presented findings from a study in Bihar, India which tested whether an arts-based training could increase police officers’ empathy towards victims of gender-based-violence.
• Policies should be rigorously evaluated before being scaled up to avoid unexpected outcomes. This was one of the key messages of Dr Bilge Erten’s work on opioid policy reforms in the U.S. Her study revealed that while reformulating opioids like OxyContin reduced intimate partner violence in some states, others saw a spike in violence due to substitution effects leading to an increased reliance on illicit drugs.

One of the goals of the workshop was to be inclusive of researchers at all career stages. Warwick PhD student Anisha Garg, who presented her work exploring the effects of investment in mass transit in Delhi on crimes against women, said: “As an early-career researcher, attending and presenting at the workshop on Violence Against Women was an invaluable experience, and I am grateful to Sonia for this opportunity.

“It not only allowed me to learn about ongoing research in the field but also provided constructive feedback from some of the expert academics in the field, guiding me on how to advance my own research."

Fellow Warwick PhD researcher Sarthak Joshi, who presented findings from his work exploring male backlash against female empowerment in rural India, said “The VAW workshop had an amazing lineup of speakers and was very well organized. For an early career researcher like me, interacting with so many experts working on the cutting edge of such an important topic was inspirational."

Reflecting on the event, Professor Bhalotra added: “The workshop provided a rich tapestry of insights and fostered collaborative exchanges among researchers, sparking ideas for future studies.”

“The consensus among participants was clear: by integrating cutting-edge research and rigorous data analysis, the field can advance both preventive and responsive solutions to violence against women.

“I will hold another workshop in 12-18 months as this is a rapidly advancing field of research and I want to build upon the momentum generated by this event.”

ENDS 

The workshop was part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 885698).

The full programme (Warwick attendees in bold):

Friday, 18 October 2024

• Presentation 1: Debiasing Law Enforcement Officers: Evidence from an Expressive Arts Intervention in India Speaker: Girija Borker, World Bank. Discussant: Priyama Majumder
• Presentation 2: Explaining Poor Police Predictions of Domestic Abuse Speaker: Jeff Grogger, University of Chicago. Discussant: Matteo Sandi
• Presentation 3: Sexual Harassment and the Leaky Pipeline in Academia Speaker: Johanna Rickne, University of Stockholm. Discussant: Lea Nassal
• Presentation 4: Firm responses to legislation on workplace sexual harassment Speaker: Sonia Bhalotra, University of Warwick. Discussant: Nina Buchmann
• Presentation 5: Keeping the Peace while getting your way: Information, Persuasion & Intimate Partner Violence Speaker: Dan Anderberg, Royal Holloway University of London. Discussant: Vahid Moghani
• Presentation 6: Income & IPV: Signal of Strength or Struggle? Evidence from Edutainment in Bangladesh Speaker: Nina Buchmann, Yale University
• Presentation 7: From Addiction to Aggression: The Spillover effect of Opioid policies on Intimate Partner Violence Speaker: Bilge Erten, Northeastern University. Discussant: Elaheh F Pour
• Presentation 8: Alcohol Availability and Violence Against Women Speaker: Susan Niknami, Stockholm University
• Presentation 9: Overstretched: Financial Distress & Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S Speaker: Olivia Masi, University of Bocconi. Discussant: Sevinc Bermek

Saturday, 19 October 2024

• Presentation 1: Anti-Sexual Harassment Amenities at Work Speaker: Karmini Sharma, Imperial College London
• Presentation 2: When Do People Condone Sexual Harassment? A Cross-Cultural Study of Trade-offs Speaker: Mateusz Stalinski, University of Warwick. Discussant: Johanna Rickne
• Presentation 3: Perceptions of workplace sexual harassment and support for policy action Speaker: Matthew Ridley, University of Warwick. Discussant: Jeff Grogger
• Presentation 4: Victim-blaming Norms and Violence Against Women: Correcting Misperceptions or Morality Drive Policy and Behaviour Change? Speaker: Sevinc Bermek, King's College London. Discussant: Anisha Garg
• Presentation 5: Schools as Safety Nets: Break-downs & Recovery in Reporting Violence Against Children Speaker: Damian Clarke, Universidad de Chile. Discussant: Alex Zhou
• Presentation 6: Gender-based Violence in Schools & Girls’ Education: Experimental Evidence from Mozambique Speaker: Selim Gulesci, Trinity College Dublin. Discussant: Rui Costa
• Presentation 7: Female Empowerment & Male Backlash: Experimental Evidence from India Speaker: Sarthak Joshi, University of Warwick. Discussant: Bilge Erten
• Presentation 8: Safe Travels: Transport Advancement and Women's Safety in India Speaker: Anisha Garg, University of Warwick. Discussant: Selim Gulesci
• Presentation 9: Sentencing Severity and Domestic Violence Speaker: Matteo Sandi, London School of Economics. Discussant: Sebastien Montpetit