Javed to talk about honor killings in Pakistan March 9

March 9, 2020
12:00 pmto1:30 pm
12:00 pmto1:30 pm
12:00 pmto1:30 pm

“In the Name of Honor: Evaluating the Impact of Weather Variability on Honor Killings in Pakistan”
Monday, March 9, 12-1:30 p.m.Center for the Study of Women in Society
Jane Grant Room (Hendricks 330)

In Pakistan, approximately 500 men and women are killed every year in the name of “honor.” In this talk, economics PhD student Amna Javed aims to improve our understanding of honor-based crimes by examining the effects of income shocks on honor killings. She received a CSWS Graduate Student Research Grant for this project.

Javed compiles a novel data set of honor killings using newspaper reports from 11 local and national news sources, covering 40 months. The data suggests approximately 70% of victims of honor-based crimes are young women, while 50% of perpetrators are members of the victim’s natal family. The research exploits rainfall variation to examine how income shocks may affect honor killings. The results suggest that a one standard deviation increase in the current and previous month’s rainfall from the local long run average increases reported honor killing incidents by 6.6%. Dry shocks have no significant effect. Higher than average rainfall shocks reduce production of cotton, a major cash crop, likely negatively affecting income. The results provide suggestive evidence that adverse income shocks are an underlying cause of murder of individuals for “honor.”

Please bring your lunch to enjoy! Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Society.