Andreas Kotsadam

Cross-national and multilevel correlates of partner violence: an analysis of data from population-based surveys

BACKGROUND On average, intimate partner violence affects nearly one in three women worldwide within their lifetime. But the distribution of partner violence is highly uneven, with a prevalence of less than 4% in the past 12 months in many high-income countries compared with at least 40% in some low-income settings. Little is known about the factors that drive the geographical distribution of partner violence or how macro-level factors might combine with individual-level factors to affect individual womens risk of intimate partner violence. We aimed to assess the role that womens status and other gender-related factors might have in defining levels of partner violence among settings. METHODS We compiled data for the 12 month prevalence of partner violence from 66 surveys (88 survey years) from 44 countries, representing 481 205 women between Jan 1, 2000, and Apr 17, 2013. Only surveys with comparable questions and state-of-the-art methods to ensure safety and encourage violence disclosure were used. With linear and quantile regression, we examined associations between macro-level measures of socioeconomic development, womens status, gender inequality, and gender-related norms and the prevalence of current partner violence at a population level. Multilevel modelling and tests for interaction were used to explore whether and how macro-level factors affect individual-level risk. The outcome for this analysis was the population prevalence of current partner violence, defined as the percentage of ever-partnered women (excluding widows without a current partner), aged from 15 years to 49 years who were victims of at least one act of physical or sexual violence within the past 12 months. FINDINGS Gender-related factors at the national and subnational level help to predict the population prevalence of physical and sexual partner violence within the past 12 months. Especially predictive of the geographical distribution of partner violence are norms related to male authority over female behaviour (0·102, p<0·0001), norms justifying wife beating (0·263, p<0·0001), and the extent to which law and practice disadvantage women compared with men in access to land, property, and other productive resources (0·271, p<0·0001). The strong negative association between current partner violence and gross domestic product (GDP) per person (-0·055, p=0·0009) becomes non-significant in the presence of norm-related measures (-0·015, p=0·472), suggesting that GDP per person is a marker for social transformations that accompany economic growth and is unlikely to be causally related to levels of partner violence. We document several cross-level effects, including that a girls education is more strongly associated with reduced risk of partner violence in countries where wife abuse is normative than where it is not. Likewise, partner violence is less prevalent in countries with a high proportion of women in the formal work force, but working for cash increases a womans risk in countries where few women work. INTERPRETATION Our findings suggest that policy makers could reduce violence by eliminating gender bias in ownership rights and addressing norms that justify wife beating and male control of female behaviour. Prevention planners should place greater emphasis on policy reforms at the macro-level and take cross-level effects into account when designing interventions. FUNDING What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls-a research and innovation project funded by UK Aid.

Does Informal Eldercare Impede Women's Employment? The Case of European Welfare States

Abstract European states vary in eldercare policies and in gendered norms of family care, and this study uses these variations to gain insight into the importance of macro-level factors for the work–care relationship. Using advanced panel data methods on European Community Household Panel (ECHP) data for 1994–2001, this study finds womens employment to be negatively associated with informal caregiving to the elderly across the European Union. For the countries included in the study, the effects of informal caregiving seem to be more negative in Southern Europe, less negative in Nordic countries, and in between these extremes in Central Europe. This study explains that since eldercare is a choice in countries with more formal care and less pronounced gendered care norms, the weaker impact of eldercare on womens employment in these countries has to do with the lesser degree of coercion in the caring decision.

A Field Experiment of Discrimination in the Norwegian Housing Market: Gender, Class, and Ethnicity

We test for gender, class, and ethnic discrimination in the Norwegian rental housing market by using fake application letters. Females, individuals with high job status, and ethnic Norwegians are more likely to receive positive responses. For example, being an Arabic man and working in a warehouse is associated with a 25 percentage point lower probability of receiving a positive response when showing interest in an apartment, as compared to an ethnically Norwegian female economist. We conclude that gender, class, and ethnic discrimination do exist in the Norwegian housing market, and ethnic discrimination seems to be the most prevalent form of discrimination. (JEL R21)

Do attitudes toward gender equality really differ between Norway and Sweden

Using survey data from Norway and Sweden, we assess people’s attitudes toward gender equality. Previous studies argue that these attitudes are more egalitarian in Sweden than in Norway. Similar to previous research, we find that Swedes are more positive towards gender equality in general. However, we find no differences regarding views on egalitarian sharing of household responsibilities, and Norwegians are actually more supportive of government intervention to increase gender equality. This suggests that the lower support for gender equality in Norway is not as clear-cut as previously thought and that active state intervention to improve gender equality may be even more feasible in Norway than in Sweden.

Gender Equity and Prostitution: An Investigation of Attitudes in Norway and Sweden

Abstract This contribution assesses attitudes toward prostitution in Norway and Sweden, where it is illegal to buy sex. Swedens law was put into place in 1999, and Norway followed in 2009. These laws were embedded in different market structures and discourses when enacted. This study uses a 2008 Internet survey to shed light on attitudes toward various aspects of prostitution while controlling for other socio-demographic factors. Findings include that men and sexual liberals of either gender are more likely positive toward prostitution and men and women who are conservative or support gender equality are more negative. Holding anti-immigration views correlates with more positive attitudes toward buying, but not selling, sex. Norwegians are more positive than Swedes toward prostitution. Supporting gender equality has more explanatory power in Sweden than in Norway, which may be due to the use of gender equality to frame the Swedish debate.

Gender and overconfidence: are girls really overconfident?

Previous research finds that people are overconfident and that men are more overconfident than women. Using a very precise confidence measure, this article shows, however, that whereas boys are overconfident, girls are actually underconfident regarding their mathematics performance. We conducted a survey where 14-year-old high school students were asked what grade they thought they would get in a mathematics test a week later. These results were then compared with their actual grade. Boys were overconfident about their grades, whereas girls were underconfident.

The Gender Gap in African Political Participation: Testing Theories of Individual and Contextual Determinants

Abstract This article aims to test whether existing theories of what factors underlie the gender gap in political participation apply in an African context. Empirical estimations drawing on recent data covering over 27,000 respondents across 20 African emerging democracies suggest that whereas several of the investigated factors – structural differences in individual resource endowments and employment, and cultural differences based in religious affiliations – are found to be important determinants of participation, they explain only a very modest share of the observed gender gaps. Suggestive evidence instead points to the role of clientelism, restricted civil liberties, economic development and gender norms.

The employment costs of caregiving in Norway

Informal eldercare is an important pillar of modern welfare states and the ongoing demographic transition increases the demand for it while social trends reduce the supply. Substantial opportunity costs of informal eldercare in terms of forgone labor opportunities have been identified, yet the effects seem to differ substantially across states and there is a controversy on the effects in the Nordic welfare states. In this study, the effects of informal care on the probability of being employed, the number of hours worked, and wages in Norway are analyzed using data from the Life cOurse, Generation, and Gender survey. New and previously suggested instrumental variables are used to control for the potential endogeneity existing between informal care and employment-related outcomes. In total, being an informal caregiver in Norway is found to entail substantially less costs in terms of forgone formal employment opportunities than in non-Nordic welfare states.

Did the Murder of Theo Van Gogh Change Europeans' Immigration Policy Preferences?

To what degree are preferences determined by fundamental and stable value orientations, or are they vulnerable to exogenous shocks to issue saliency? We exploit that the second round of the European Social Survey was conducted around the time when Mohammed Bouyeri murdered Theo van Gogh on 2 November 2004. The murder was covered extensively across Europe and led to a debate about the impact of mass immigration. We consider the murder as a natural experiment which allows us to explore how a shock to issue saliency affects immigration policy preferences. We compare preferences of those interviewed right before the murder (control group) with those interviewed right after the murder (treatment group). We find robust evidence of a significant treatment effect in a pooled analysis with country fixed effects. However, when we allow the treatment effect to vary across countries, we find evidence of more support for restrictive policy in only three countries (Norway, Spain, and Slovakia).

Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage: The Case of Scandinavia

The purpose of this study was to examine the variables that explain attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Using recently collected Scandinavian data (from Norway and Sweden) with a high response rate, this study shows that gender, regular participation in religious activities, political ideology, education, whether the respondent lived in the capital city, and attitudes toward gender equality were important for attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Age and income were not important for attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Although both Norwegians and Swedes clearly favor same-sex marriage, Swedes are significantly more positive than Norwegians.