Cross-disciplinary intersections between public health and economics in intimate partner violence research

Meghna Ranganathan; Lori Heise; Amber Peterman; Shalini Roy; Melissa Hidrobo

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100822

Cross-disciplinary intersections between public health and economics in intimate partner violence research

SSM Popul Health. 2021 May 15:14:100822. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100822. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Authors

Meghna Ranganathan¹, Lori Heise², Amber Peterman³, Shalini Roy⁴, Melissa Hidrobo⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Global Health and Development, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Tavistock Place, WC1H 9SH, London, UK.
² Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Room E4644, 21205, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Department of Public Policy, Abernathy Hall CB #3435, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516, USA.
⁴ Poverty Health and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, 1201 I St NW, Washington, DC, 20005, USA.

Abstract

Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) has progressed in the last decade in the fields of public health and economics, with under-explored potential for cross-fertilisation. We examine the theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches that each discipline uses to conceptualise and study IPV and offer a perspective on their relative advantages. Public health takes a broad theoretical perspective anchored in the socio-ecological framework, considering multiple and synergistic drivers of IPV, while economics focuses on bargaining models which highlight individual power and factors that shape this power. These perspectives shape empirical work, with public health examining multi-faceted interventions, risk and mediating factors, while economics focuses on causal modelling of specific economic and institutional factors and economic-based interventions. The disciplines also have differing views on measurement and ethics in primary research. We argue that efforts to understand and address IPV would benefit if the two disciplines collaborated more closely and combined the best traditions of both fields.

Keywords: Cross-disciplinary research; Intimate partner violence; Public health and economics.