CHE Seminar Series: The abuse trap
This paper is motivated by the fact that domestic abuse recurs within couples, but that nevertheless only a small share of women leave abusive partnerships. We investigate women's intention to leave conditional on abuse as a function of their beliefs over the risk of future abuse. Possibly contrary to expectation, we find that women who anticipate abuse state that they are less likely to leave. This association is stronger for psychological than for physical abuse, and stronger among women who have previously suffered abuse. It is similar across the distributions of education, employment and income, particularly if the woman has already been abused. We find limited support for competing explanations, including selection into abusive partnerships, sabotage of outside options, generalized pessimism and depression. We then look at actual rates of leaving conditional upon abuse, and find that these are a lot lower than intended rates. We argue that our findings are consistent with abusive men acting to make it costly for their partners to leave, for instance by instilling fear. It is also consistent with our finding that women tend to under-estimate abuse risk, and most so when they are at higher risk, which characterises women who are depressed, and women who have witnessed parental abuse as children.
Speaker profile
Adeline Delavande is Professor of Economics at the University of Technology Sydney and Nova School of Business and Economics. Her research examines how individuals form beliefs and make decisions under uncertainty, with applications in economic demography, health, education, and development economics. A central feature of her work is the collection and analysis of probabilistic expectations data to better understand individual behaviour and evaluate policy interventions. Her research frequently combines original survey design, field experiments, and applied microeconometric methods, often through interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers and practitioners in health and other fields.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our Centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact Trong-Anh.Trinh@monash.edu
Event Details
- Date:
- 16 September 2026 at 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
- Venue:
- Caulfield campus, Building H, level 9, room H9.21
- Categories:
- CHE Seminar; General
Description
This paper is motivated by the fact that domestic abuse recurs within couples, but that nevertheless only a small share of women leave abusive partnerships. We investigate women's intention to leave conditional on abuse as a function of their beliefs over the risk of future abuse. Possibly contrary to expectation, we find that women who anticipate abuse state that they are less likely to leave. This association is stronger for psychological than for physical abuse, and stronger among women who have previously suffered abuse. It is similar across the distributions of education, employment and income, particularly if the woman has already been abused. We find limited support for competing explanations, including selection into abusive partnerships, sabotage of outside options, generalized pessimism and depression. We then look at actual rates of leaving conditional upon abuse, and find that these are a lot lower than intended rates. We argue that our findings are consistent with abusive men acting to make it costly for their partners to leave, for instance by instilling fear. It is also consistent with our finding that women tend to under-estimate abuse risk, and most so when they are at higher risk, which characterises women who are depressed, and women who have witnessed parental abuse as children.
Speaker profile
Adeline Delavande is Professor of Economics at the University of Technology Sydney and Nova School of Business and Economics. Her research examines how individuals form beliefs and make decisions under uncertainty, with applications in economic demography, health, education, and development economics. A central feature of her work is the collection and analysis of probabilistic expectations data to better understand individual behaviour and evaluate policy interventions. Her research frequently combines original survey design, field experiments, and applied microeconometric methods, often through interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers and practitioners in health and other fields.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our Centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact Trong-Anh.Trinh@monash.edu