Advancement to Candidacy Presentation: “Climate Shocks, Intimate Partner Violence and the Mediating Role of Kin Marriages”, Kajari Saha

Speaker

Kajari Saha, PhD Student, UC Santa Barbara

Biography

Kajari Saha is a PhD student in Economics at UC Santa Barbara. Prior to joining UCSB, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India.  She also earned a Master of Arts in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India and a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, India.
Her research centers on the economics of gender, labor and development. Her current research focuses on understanding the gendered health and societal impacts of climate shocks in India.

Event Details

Kajari will be presenting her Advancement to Candidacy paper, “Climate Shocks, Intimate Partner Violence and the Mediating Role of Kin Marriages”. To access the Advancement paper, you must have an active UCSB NetID and password.

Abstract and JEL Codes

This study investigates the causal impact of climate change on intimate partner violence (IPV) in rural India, highlighting the role of pre-existing marital institutions, such as kin marriages, in mitigating some of the adverse effects of climate- induced income shocks on women in rural India. By linking geo-referenced weather data with women’s experiences of domestic violence from the Indian Demographic and Health Surveys, I find that droughts during the kharif growing season (June – September) and temperature increases during the rabi season (November–December) significantly increase the incidence of physical IPV against women. Additionally, I find that the increase in the incidence of physical violence is partially mitigated for women married to their close-kin relatives. Using household- level panel data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) (2004-05 and 2011-12), I find suggestive evidence that this protective effect may stem from more effective consumption smoothing and enhanced resilience of kin marriages in the face of adverse income shocks.

JEL codes: J12, J16, Q56 and O13

Keywords: climate change; intimate partner violence; resilience; India; kin marriage