Do Economists Need to Rethink their Approaches To Modeling Intimate Partner Violence?

This paper critiques economists' past approaches to modeling the issue of intimate partner violence based on stylized facts about victims and batterers. These stylized facts are an important step in recognizing a broader range of issues than what has been narrowly formulated in economic studies to date. A key factor is the revolving door phenomenon of abused women leaving and returning to a violent union. The ways in which women react to abusive situations is shaped by time-varying and path-dependent, decision-making processes over several episodes of violence. This paper discusses how economists can extend far beyond their current thinking around the constructions of intimate partner violence. The stylized facts presented in the paper have important implications for policy approaches to the issue, particularly where it concerns abused women's potential for self-sufficiency in the labor market.