At the Competence-Centre on Microeconomic Evaluation (CC-ME) we advise and support EU policy making through ex-post causal evaluation and data-driven microeconomic analysis. The CC-ME hosts a Microeconometric Seminar Series to promote discussions with external researchers from academia and other institutions. Our Seminar Series is intended to disseminate advanced research methodologies and topics in the field of microeconomic evaluation. To further disseminate the benefits of our Series across the JRC, we post a summary of the presented papers together with the presenters' views and opinions on their research and the future of the field of Applied Economics. |
Last week we had the pleasure of having Professor Judit Vall from the University of Barcelona present her work: Hit Where it Hurts: Healthcare Access and Intimate Partner Violence.
Her paper investigates the causal link between healthcare access and the help-seeking behavior of intimate partner violence (IPV) victims. Healthcare access can be an important entry point for screening or detecting IPV. Doctors are required by law to report any injuries to a judge if they suspect they are the result of a crime and can inform and direct victims to IPV services.
The authors exploit the 2012 reform in Spain that removed access to the public healthcare system for undocumented immigrants. They use court reports and protection order requests from the Judicial Branch of the Spanish government to perform a difference-in-differences approach, comparing the help-seeking behavior of foreign and Spanish women before and after the reform.
They find that the impact of the reform was immediate; foreign women’s IPV reporting and application for protection orders decreased by 12%. This effect is entirely driven by regions with stronger enforcement of the reform. They show suggestive evidence that the reform left the underlying levels of IPV incidence unaffected. Instead, the results are driven by a reduction in injury reports by medical centers. Their findings are important given the increase in migration flows globally as well as for current debates on granting/limiting access to healthcare for marginalized groups.
To learn more about Professor Vall's work and opinions about the future of the field of Applied Economics we asked her to briefly answer a series of questions. You can find her answer to each of our questions below.
Q: What attracted you to research the topics in your paper? A: Two main facts attracted me to the research topic on intimate partner violence; first, the increase in intimate partner violence in many countries around the globe, despite improvements in legislation on women's rights. Second, the lack of research in this area, mostly due to the difficulties in getting data to develop the analysis. |
Q: Where is the research area where your paper fits moving? A: I think the growth in both the interest as well as the amount of research focusing on different aspects of gender biases is impressive. It is definitely a growing field within economics, but this is also because it has been a neglected area for a long time. Therefore, the area is expanding and moving from elements of gender biases in the labour market, which have typically been easier to quantify, to other elements of gender biases, such as child penalties, access to health care, etc... A stronger focus is also placed on the evaluation of policies that prove efficient in reducing the documented gender biases and gender gaps. |
Q: What, in your opinion, will the next breakthrough in Applied Economics be? A: This is such a difficult question, and I don't feel qualified to take a guess. The past developments in applied methods are probably going to continue growing but many other areas are also growing strong. |
The CC-ME team would like to congratulate Professor Vall for her insightful research and thank her for presenting it in our Seminar Series.
For more information on the upcoming presentations and how to participate in our Seminar Series please visit our dedicated website.
| Originally Published | Last Updated | 13 Sep 2023 | 11 Mar 2024 |
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