Stand together or alone? Family structure and the business cycle in Canada

Ariizumi, Hideki; Hu, Yaqin; Schirle, Tammy

doi:10.1007/s11150-013-9195-8

“…Their findings point to an immediate positive effect of male unemployment on divorce. No impact of unemployment on divorce could be found in the analysis of the Canadian case (Ariizumi et al, 2015). It is then reasonable to state that the empirical results are mixed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…To examine this issue, we could have utilized total divorce rates, which are defined as the annual number of divorces per 1,000 married inhabitants, but this analysis would have been less reliable due to the scarcity of data on the married population, which is only available when each census is collected, normally every 10 years (Furtado et al, 2013). 4 Thus, we favor the use of the crude divorce rate with a longer series, but we have also repeated the analysis using total divorce rates (see the Appendix). 5 To measure business cycle fluctuations, we use unemployment rates for the same period.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Divorce and the business cycle: a cross-country analysis

González‐Val

¹

,

Marcén

²

2016

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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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“…As noted, these theoretical perspectives do not indicate an a priori clear relationship between business cycle variations and divorce. found in the analysis of the Canadian case (Ariizumi et al, 2015). It is then reasonable to state that the empirical results are mixed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…To examine this issue, we could have utilized total divorce rates, which are defined as the annual number of divorces per 1,000 married inhabitants, but this analysis would have been less reliable due to the scarcity of data on the married population, which is only available when each census is collected, normally every 10 years (Furtado et al, 2013). 4 Thus, we favor the use of the crude divorce rate with a longer series, but we have also repeated the analysis using total divorce rates (see the Appendix).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In any case, we also repeated the analysis including the FYR of Macedonia, and the results did not change substantially. 4 Although there may be some concerns about the use of the crude divorce rate, it is worth noting that other papers that contain information about both the crude divorce rate and the total divorce rate did not find differences in their results (see Marcén, 2012a andMarcén, 2015). Those authors showed that both rates behave in the same manner.…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

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Divorce and the Business Cycle: A Cross-Country Analysis

González‐Val

¹

,

Marcén

²

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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

show abstract