Air Pollution and Intimate Partner Violence in India

Abstract We combine individual-level data from the Demographic and Health Survey for India with high-resolution spatial data on air pollutants to investigate how exposure to high levels of PM2.5 influences spousal violence. For identification, we use atmospheric wind directions as an instrument for local pollution concentrations. We find that a 10 $$\:\mu\:g/{m}^{3}$$ increase in PM2.5 levels has a statistically significant impact on intimate partner violence, raising the incidence of any violence by 4.7% over the sample mean. Heterogeneity analysis shows the effects are concentrated among rural households and poor households. We also find that air pollution in rural areas is associated with lower probability of both women and men working. This is consistent with the hypothesis that air pollution could affect intimate partner violence indirectly through reduced employment.