Peer-reviewed article
A conditional cash transfer and Women's empowerment: Does Bolsa Familia Influence intimate partner violence?
Ashley Litwin, Elizaveta Perova, Sarah Anne Reynolds ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines whether Brazil's Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer program reduces intimate partner violence against women. Using qualitative interviews and quantitative analysis of municipal data from 2004-2009, the researchers found that the program did not reduce female homicides but was associated with increased marital separations, particularly among couples with children. The findings suggest the cash transfer improves women's agency within households but not enough to prevent severe violence.
Key points
- Qualitative data suggested plausible positive, negative, and null associations between the CCT and intimate partner violence
- No statistically significant association found between Bolsa Familia expansion and female homicide rates
- Bolsa Familia was associated with increased marital separations, with greater increases in separations of couples with children
- Results indicate the program impacts women's agency and reservation utility within the household
- Economic and psychological motivations combine to produce mixed effects on intimate partner violence
Limitations
The study measures female homicides and separations as proxies for intimate partner violence rather than direct measures of violence prevalence or severity. The analysis cannot determine individual-level causal mechanisms or whether separations represent women leaving abusive relationships or other family dissolution factors.
Abstract
We apply mixed methods to explore how a conditional cash transfer (CCT) may influence intimate partner violence (IPV). Qualitative interviews with female beneficiaries of Bolsa Familia, Brazil's CCT program, and service providers suggest positive, negative, and null associations between CCTs and IPV are all plausible. These associations result from a combination of economic and psychological motivations. We also use quantitative methods to examine if the expansion of Bolsa Familia between 2004 and 2009 affects the female homicide rate and marital separations. Using municipal level data in a difference-in-differences analysis, we find null associations between Bolsa Familia and female homicides. When we examine the impact on marriages and separations, indicative of a change in the reservation utility of women within the household, we find no impact on marriages but Bolsa Familia is associated with an increase in separations, and, to a greater extent, separations of couples with children. These results suggest Bolsa Familia impacts women's agency within the family, but not to the extent that it reduces the most extreme form of IPV.