Tying the Double-Knot: The Role of Assets in Marriage Commitment

Lafortune, Jeanne; Low, Corinne

doi:10.1257/aer.p20171058

Cited by 24 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Divorce laws affect household behavior both within and outside marriage. 1 The legal regime governing the division of property after divorce affects bargaining power (Chiappori, Fortin, and Lacroix, 2002) and incentives to make marriage-specific investments (Stevenson, 2007;Fisher, 2012;Lundberg and Pollak, 2015;Lafortune and Low, 2017). Evidence of these effects has improved our understanding of intrahousehold behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Consequences of Extending Equitable Property Division Divorce Laws to Cohabitants

et al. 2019

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Since the 1970s, marriage rates have declined throughout the developed world and unmarried cohabitation has become increasingly important. Despite the growing importance, unmarried couples face a wide range of legal frameworks if their relationship breaks down. For example, in many US states and in England and Wales family law does not cover unmarried couples. In contrast, in Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Canada, unmarried couples face the same property division regime as married couples. We examine the effects of the extension of the Australian Family Law Act to unmarried couples, focusing on how being subject to equitable property division laws affects the behaviour of intact couples. Before 2009, laws determining post-separation financial settlements for unmarried couples varied between states and territories, ranging from marriage-equivalence to far more restrictive provisions. In 2008, the provisions of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) were extended to unmarried couples, harmonizing the legal regime across the country with effect from 1 March 2009. We use this natural experiment to identify the causal effect of being subject to marriage-equivalent equitable property division laws. We find that existing couples are more likely to make relationship-specific investments after being exposed to laws enabling the equitable redistribution of property in the event of relationship breakdown. In affected couples we find that men increase their employment and women increase time spent on housework. Couples have more children and are more likely to become home owners. When examining self-reported life satisfaction, we find similar effects for men and women, with an increase in financial satisfaction offset by a reduction in partner satisfaction. These results demonstrate the causal effect of property division laws on relationshipspecific investments and demonstrate that legal approaches aimed at sharing the financial burden of relationship breakdown can have important incentive effects for existing couples. This means that a potentially unintended consequence of these laws is that they make unmarried couples behave more like married couples.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Consequences of Extending Equitable Property Division Divorce Laws to Cohabitants

et al. 2019

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“…are more likely to accumulate assets during the relationship and may be more responsive than low-earning couples to regulation changing property rights at separation. Lafortune and Low (2017) argue that having assets increases the value of marriage in a world where marriage and cohabitation have become relatively similar except for the way assets are split at separation. Chiappori, Iyigun, Lafortune, and Weiss (2016) find that the effect of changes in cohabitation are actually higher among college educated individuals than among others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More or Less Unmarried. The Impact of Legal Settings of Cohabitation on Labor Market Outcomes

Goussé

Leturcq

2018

SSRN Journal

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“…11 11 Miller and Schofield (2008, pp. 433–450) report: “Republicans could (and did) form a marriage of convenience between populists and economic conservatives, in opposition to the federal government as sponsor of the social change catalyzed by the movements for civil rights, women's rights, consumer rights, and the environment.” See also: Bitler et al (2004), Thomas (2001) and Lafortune & Low (2017). …”

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confidence: 99%

Ten years later: Self‐sufficiency of welfare mothers before the Great Recession

Vaughan

Haley

Dajani

2021

Poverty & Public Policy

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This paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, that was mandated by the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), showing trends over time in wages for mothers who received welfare benefits in 1996, using the power of a longitudinal data set: a nationally representative sample of 1000 welfare mothers in the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), linked to their IRS wage records from 1996 to 2007. Only one in ten of the 1996 cohort of welfare mothers received wages that were at least 175% of the poverty line by 2007. By 2007, only one in six of those with more than a high school diploma achieved this level of economic self‐sufficiency. For all time periods, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, had a positive impact for only the lowest wage earners, that is, with earnings below half the poverty line. Our results provide a commentary on the validity of neoliberal assumptions underlying the long‐term implementation of the PRWORA. Analyses of future SIPP panels will determine whether these trends continued.

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Tying the Double-Knot: The Role of Assets in Marriage Commitment

Cited by 24 publications

References 13 publications

The Consequences of Extending Equitable Property Division Divorce Laws to Cohabitants

The Consequences of Extending Equitable Property Division Divorce Laws to Cohabitants

More or Less Unmarried. The Impact of Legal Settings of Cohabitation on Labor Market Outcomes

Ten years later: Self‐sufficiency of welfare mothers before the Great Recession

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