Do Disasters Always Increase Intimate Partner Violence?

We examine how a severe earthquake changed attitudes about and the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Papua New Guinea. Although there are several reasons why disasters can aggravate IPV, we illustrate a large decline in the acceptability of IPV among men in disaster-affected regions and a smaller and noisier decline in reported incidents of IPV, driven entirely by strong and precisely estimated declines among women who are least likely to underreport violence. We further illustrate an important mechanism explaining the improvement, where we find evidence of an expanded role for women in the household. The results highlight that disasters can have important non-economic impacts that need not always be negative and illustrate the value of a survey-based technique to more fully analyze sensitive issues that are difficult to address with standard survey modules.