Yinjunjie Jacquelyn Zhang and Robert Breunig of the Australian National University receive the 2024 Kuznets Prize for their OPEN ACCESS article Female breadwinning and domestic abuse: evidence from Australia, which was published in the Journal of Population Economics (2023), 36, pp. 2925–2965. The annual prize honors the best article published in the Journal of Population Economics in the previous year. 

The prize will be awarded in a public online event during the 2023 GLO – JOPE Global Conference on December 4, 2023 on 10:00 pm – 12.00 am CET Berlin = December 4, 2023 on 16:00 pm – 18.00 pm EST Philadelphia = December 5, 2023 on 8:00 am – 10:00 am AEDT Sydney. For the program and to register for the event see LINK.

December 6, 2023: Missed the event? Here is the video of the session.
VIDEO of GLO-JOPE Global Conference 2023 Sessions A6-A7 (Kuznets Prize Session)

Biographical Abstracts

Yinjunjie Zhang (Jacquelyn) is a research fellow affiliated at Arndt-Corden Department of Economics and Tax and Transfer Policy Institute in Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University. Dr Zhang obtained her PhD at Texas A&M University in 2018. She has her research interest spanning the areas of labor economics, public economics, and experimental economics. A common thread is in understanding the impact of public policy on people’s behavior, choice, and welfare. She has published research articles in peer-reviewed economic journals and worked on a range of research projects aimed at providing insights on social policies and labor market outcomes.

Robert Breunig is the director of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Crawford School of Public Policy. He is one of Australia’s leading Public Policy Economists. He has published in over 50 international academic journals in economics and public policy. Professor Breunig has made significant policy impact through a number of his research projects: the relationship between child care and women’s labor supply; the effect of immigration to Australia on the labor market prospects of Australians; the effect of switching to cash from food stamps in the U.S. food stamp program and the inter-generational transmission of disadvantage. Professor Breunig’s research is motivated by important social policy issues and debates. His work is characterized by careful empirical study and appropriate use of statistical technique.

Paper Abstract

We explore the relationship between heterosexual partners’ relative income and the incidence of both domestic violence and emotional abuse. Using Australian data drawn from society-wide surveys, we find women who earn more than their male partners are subject to a 33% increase in partner violence and a 20% increase in emotional abuse compared to mean levels. We show the relationship between relative spouse income and female partner abuse is best modelled by a binary variable that captures “female breadwinning.” This finding differs from those of some earlier studies that considered only serious abuse and found a continuous negative relationship between female partners’ relative income and abuse. Instead, our findings suggest a mechanism related to gender norms generating domestic violence. We find no link between relative income and abuse of male partners.

More about the Kuznets Prize & previous prize winners.

Further research & video presentations on domestic violence in the Journal of Population Economics:

JOPE Collections and calls for papers: One focus (collection) is Sexual and Domestic Violence. JOPE Associate Editors Astghik Mavisakalyan and Dave Ribar are important advisors in the JOPE Editorial Board for this focus.

Recommended reading:
Prettyman, A., Ribar, D.C. (2022). Child Abuse and Neglect. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_234-1
Hsu, L., Henke, A. (2022). Intimate Partner Violence. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_309-2

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The Sixth IESR-GLO Joint Workshop at Jinan University, October 26-27, 2023, had covered papers on “Gender Issues and Domestic Violence”: REPORT

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