The unspoken bargain: household decision-making and its link to emotional violence against women in developing countries

Purpose This paper examines the impact of household decision-making (HDM) on emotional violence (EV) in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach Using repeated cross-sectional data from 100 Demographic and Health Surveys covering 50 countries between 2011 and 2022, the study estimates a linear probability model (LPM) and 2SLS with women's property rights (WPR) as an instrument. Findings Joint spousal decision-making is associated with a lower likelihood of experiencing EV. A one standard deviation increase in HDM is associated with an 8.1 percentage-point decrease in the probability of experiencing EV. In contrast, autonomous decision-making is associated with a higher risk of EV. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that joint decision-making reduces women's exposure to humiliation, threats, and insults. The results further indicate that higher husbands' education, more household wealth, and rural residence are associated with a lower risk of EV, while women's age, husbands' alcohol consumption, polygamous marriage, witnessing violence during childhood, and female household head are associated with a higher likelihood of EV. Originality/value Moving beyond single-country evidence, this study shows that promoting intra-household decision-making as a policy implication provides strong protection against EV.