This study examines the causal effect of women’s age at marriage on prevalence of domestic violence using newly available household data from India. The paper employs an empirical strategy that utilizes variation in age at menarche to obtain exogenous variation in women’s age at marriage. The results show robust evidence that a one-year delay in women’s marriage causes a significant decline in physical violence, although it has no impact on sexual or emotional violence. Further, the study provides suggestive evidence that the effect of women’s marital age on physical violence arises because older brides, as compared to younger brides, are more educated and are married to more educated men. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of better enforcement of existing social policies that seek to delay marriages of women, as well as formulation of newer interventions, to reduce the prevalence of domestic violence in developing countries.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The study examines the causal effect of marital age on exposure to domestic violence.

• It utilizes recent household data from India.

• Variation in age at menarche is used to obtain exogenous variation in age at marriage.

• Results show one-year delay in women's marriage causes a decline in physical violence.

• The study conducts further analysis to shed light on underlying mechanisms.

本研究使用来自印度的最新家庭数据，研究了女性结婚年龄对家庭暴力流行率的因果影响。本文采用了一种经验策略，利用初潮年龄的变化来获得女性结婚年龄的外生变化。结果显示强有力的证据表明，女性结婚延迟一年会导致身体暴力显着减少，尽管它对性暴力或情感暴力没有影响。此外，该研究提供了暗示性证据，表明女性婚龄对身体暴力的影响之所以产生，是因为与年轻新娘相比，年长新娘受教育程度更高，并且嫁给受教育程度更高的男性。总体而言，调查结果强调了更好地执行旨在推迟妇女结婚的现有社会政策的重要性，

强调

• 该研究调查了婚龄对家庭暴力暴露的因果影响。

• 它利用了印度最近的家庭数据。

• 初潮年龄的变化用于获得结婚年龄的外源性变化。

• 结果显示，女性结婚延迟一年会导致身体暴力减少。

• 该研究进行了进一步的分析，以阐明潜在的机制。