Economic Determinants of Child Maltreatment∗

This entry examines the economic determinants of child maltreatment. We first discuss potential mechanisms through which economic factors, including income, employment, aggregate economic conditions, and welfare receipt, might have causal effects on the rates of child abuse and neglect. We then outline the main challenges faced by researchers attempting to identify these causal effects, emphasizing the importance of data limitations and potential confounding factors at both the individual and aggregate levels. We describe two approaches used in the existing literature to address these challenges—the use of experimental variation to identify the effects of changes in family income on individual likelihood of maltreatment, and the use of area studies to identify the effects of changes in local economic conditions on aggregate rates of maltreatment. ∗Lindo is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University, a Research Associate at NBER, and a Research Fellow at IZA. Schaller is an Assistant Professor at University of Arizona. The authors can be contacted at [email protected] and [email protected]. Definition: The economic determinants of child maltreatment refers to the broad set of economic factors that have causal effects on the rates of child abuse and neglect, either directly or indirectly, potentially including income, employment, aggregate economic conditions, and welfare receipt.