Violence as a Bequest: Is Stunting and Underweight More Likely Among Children of Women Facing Violence?

This chapter continues with the analysis of the negative externalities of intimate partner violence (IPV) on children of victims. It focusses on the child’s nutritional status, specifically on stunting, underweight, and a composite index combining these two indicators. We start by pointing out that existing studies fail to take into the possibility that victims of violence may have characteristics that also affect the nutritional status of their children. In that case, the resultant endogeneity would fail to establish a causal relation between IPV and child’s nutritional status. The analysis uses control function and endogenous treatment effect models to address this problem.