Effect of Domestic Violence on Children's Human Capital in Colombia

Greta Friedemann-Sanchez, University of Minnesota
Ragui Assaad, University of Minnesota
Deborah Levison, University of Minnesota

Human capital is well-known to be an important factor in economic development. Less well-known is the impact of exposure to family violence on children’s educational outcomes. This paper fills a void in the literature by examining the effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) against the mother on the educational outcomes of her children ages 6-14. We take seriously the potential endogeneity of IPV and use both parametric and non-parametric instrumental variables methods to address it. Our data comes from Colombia’s 2005 DHS, which includes an in-depth module on domestic violence. Our results indicate that mother’s experience of IPV reduces children’s educational outcomes.