An empirical study on violence against women and unemployment in Sweden

Abstract: This study examines what effect female and male unemployment rate has on the number of reported physical abuse cases against women in Sweden during the time period 2008 to 2021 by estimating a fixed effect regression on three different models, all with the female and male unemployment rate as the independent variable of interest. Three different theories that propose that the female and male unemployment rates have opposite effects are discussed. The theory of male backlash which suggest that an increase in female unemployment decreases the violence against women, the theories of exposure reduction and bargaining power that suggest that an increase in female unemployment increases the violence against women. The result of this study lies in line with the two theories of exposure reduction and bargaining power.