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  3. American Economic Review
  4. May 2015
  5. Can Alcohol Prohibition Reduce Violence against Women?

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Can Alcohol Prohibition Reduce Violence against Women?

  • Dara Lee Luca
  • Emily Owens
  • Gunjan Sharma
American Economic Review
vol. 105, no. 5, May 2015
(pp. 625–29)
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Abstract

Violence against women is a critical problem across the world. In this paper, we exploit state and temporal variation in alcohol control in India to examine the impact of prohibition on alcohol consumption and violent crimes against women. We first use detailed household survey data to show that prohibition policies are associated with substantially lower rates of drinking among men and domestic violence. Next, we provide evidence that alcohol prohibition reduces aggregate violence against women in officially reported crime data. The results suggest that policies that restrict access to alcohol may help reduce gender violence.

Citation

Luca, Dara Lee, Emily Owens, and Gunjan Sharma. 2015. "Can Alcohol Prohibition Reduce Violence against Women?" American Economic Review, 105 (5): 625–29. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20151120

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
  • O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
  • O17 Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements