Did Unilateral Divorce Raise Divorce Rates? Evidence from Panel Data

Friedberg, Leora

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2207

Cited by 133 publications

(192 citation statements)

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“…As stated by Furtado et al Catholic population and the divorce rate, although this coefficient is not statistically significant when we add the rest of the controls in column (5). 15 After the incorporation of all of these controls, the results are not altered when we use the male unemployment rate in columns (6) and (7). Overall, our estimates always point to a pro-cyclical response of divorce rates.…”

Section: Methodology and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…This rate is the standard measure of the evolution of divorce that is provided by all National Statistical Offices and International Organizations. Much of the recent literature uses divorces per thousand of population as the main dependent variable (see Friedberg, 1998, Wolfers, 2006, and González and Viitanen, 2009, among many others). However, we recognize that the rates may be affected by the marital status structure of the populations to which they relate.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the United Kingdom, a five-year separation period is needed for the spouse who wants a divorce if his/her spouse does not consent to that divorce. Under these circumstances, divorce decisions are more difficult than in other countries, such as the US, where in most states, unilateral divorce is not so restrictive (Friedberg, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Divorce and the business cycle: a cross-country analysis

González‐Val

Marcén

2016

Rev Econ Household

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In this paper, we examine the role of the business cycle in divorce. To do so, we use a panel of 29 European countries covering the period from 1991 to 2012. We find the unemployment rate negatively affects the divorce rate, pointing to a pro-cyclical evolution of the divorce rate, even after controlling for socio-economic variables and unobservable characteristics that can vary by country, and/or over time. Results indicate that a onepercentage-point increase in the unemployment rate involves almost 0.025 fewer divorces per thousand inhabitants. The impact is small, representing around 1.2% of the average divorce rate in Europe during the period considered. Supplementary analysis, developed to explore a possible non-linear pattern, confirms a negative relationship between unemployment and divorce in European countries, with the inverse relationship being more pronounced in those countries with higher divorce rates.JEL Codes: C14, C23, J12

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Section: Methodology and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Divorce and the business cycle: a cross-country analysis

González‐Val

Marcén

2016

Rev Econ Household

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“…Her results have been criticized by (Allen, 1990(Allen, , 1992, mainly on the grounds that she misclassified some states as having fault-based laws. Using U.S. panel data, Zelder (1993) and Friedberg, L. (1998) find a positive impact of the change to a unilateral law on divorce rates. In particular, Friedberg, L. (1998) found that unilateral divorce laws were responsible for about 17 percent of the increase in divorce rates in the U.S. during the Seventies and Eighties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using U.S. panel data, Zelder (1993) and Friedberg, L. (1998) find a positive impact of the change to a unilateral law on divorce rates. In particular, Friedberg, L. (1998) found that unilateral divorce laws were responsible for about 17 percent of the increase in divorce rates in the U.S. during the Seventies and Eighties. Her results were widely accepted until Wolfers (2006), found that the effect of unilateral divorce is small and short-lived 1 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Divorce laws and divorce rate in the US

Marcassa¹

2013

The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics

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Divorce Law Reforms and Divorce Rates in the Usa: An Interactive Fixed‐effects Approach

Kim

Oka

2013

J of Applied Econometrics

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SUMMARY This paper estimates the effects of unilateral divorce laws on divorce rates in the USA from a panel of state‐level divorce rates. We use the interactive fixed‐effects model to address the issue of endogeneity due to the association between cross‐state unobserved heterogeneity and divorce law reforms. We document that earlier studies in the literature do not fully control for unobserved heterogeneity and result in mixed empirical evidence on the effects of divorce law reforms. While reconciling these conflicting results, our results suggest that divorce law reforms have temporal positive effects on divorce rates, thus confirming the 2006 findings of Wolfers. Via simulation experiments, we assess the degree to which faulty inclusion or faulty exclusion of interactive fixed effects affects the policy effect estimators. Our results suggest that faulty inclusion only results in efficiency loss whereas faulty exclusion causes bias. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Did Unilateral Divorce Raise Divorce Rates? Evidence from Panel Data

Cited by 133 publications

References 3 publications

Divorce and the business cycle: a cross-country analysis

Divorce and the business cycle: a cross-country analysis

Divorce laws and divorce rate in the US

Divorce Law Reforms and Divorce Rates in the Usa: An Interactive Fixed‐effects Approach

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