Abstract
Negative economic shocks have the potential to affect intra-household dynamics and the risk of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). The implementation of the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda creates exogenous variation in employment status and allows us to compare the incidence of violence among employed women whose partners' occupational sectors were or were not shut down. We find that male unemployment increases the likelihood of experiencing physical violence (both sexual abuse and beating) by 4.9 percentage points. The effect is observed right at the onset of the unemployment spell, but vanishes after the economic shock is absorbed.