Families play an important role in providing insurance against adverse shocks, but little is known about how shocks affect the family structure itself. We study the impact of a labor market shock on divorce and intra-household allocation of resources, exploiting a naturalexperimental earthquake...

We analyze the impact of unexpected health shocks - defined as the sudden diagnosis of cancer, stroke, or heart attack - on the probability of couple dissolution using longitudinal representative data on older individuals (50+). We leverage the longitudinal nature of the HRS and utilize a...

We analyze the impact of unexpected health shocks—defined as the sudden diagnosis of cancer, stroke, or heart attack—on the probability of couple dissolution using longitudinal representative data on older individuals (50+). We leverage the longitudinal nature of the HRS and utilize a...

European fascist regimes have attached great importance to nationalistic families and designed policies to perpetuate them. Most offered policy packages with interest-free loans repayable through childbirth, along with allowances and tax deductions for large families. Using a...

This study sheds new light on the impact of couple separation on living standards by considering the effects of separation on measures reflecting the adequacy of food consumption in addition to more commonly studied income and expenditure measures. Using panel data from France, I examine changes...

While divorce laws are known to influence family behavior, empirical evidence of their effects on children remains scarce. I shed more light on this by evaluating the Swedish divorce law reform of 1974, which i) liberalized the existing divorce laws and ii) implemented a 6-month parental...

This paper examines the impact of the 2014 Italian divorce law on help-seeking behavior of domestic violence victims and femicides. I find that contrary to expectations, the reform, which aimed to make divorce cheaper while requiring mutual consent, led to a decrease in help-seeking behavior...

We present an equilibrium model of inter-linked frictional labour and marriage markets. In the marital market, men and women are involved in random sequential search for a partner. Men are seen as breadwinners in the family, and therefore in the labour market unemployed men carry out a...

This paper examines the causal effects of television exposure on individual decisions regarding marriage, divorce, and family planning by utilizing a natural experiment in the German Democratic Republic during the period of German division. I exploit the fact that individuals in some East German...

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, divorce rates across European countries significantly declined and remained low through 2023. This sustained low level is notable, especially given the potential for a rebound in postponed divorces. This study examines partnership dissolution in...

Extant literature has shown that climate change will affect people's mood and mental health, while the influence of climate change on marriage status is not analyzed. We estimate the effects of different types of climate change on the divorce rate around the world. Our models suggest that the...

Recent decades have seen major changes in the educational profiles of the populations of Western industrialised countries, notably a sharp rise in educational attainment and a reversal of the gender gap in education. These trends are likely to have affected patterns of educational assortative...

Couples in which wives have more education than their husbands have been found to be more likely than other couples to divorce. But this relationship varies across time and place. We compare the relationship between spouses' relative education and marital dissolution across four birth cohorts...

Despite substantial progress in closing the gender gap, women's labor force participation in the Middle East and North Africa remains one of the lowest globally, at a mere 18 percent. This paper investigates the effect of the introduction of unilateral divorce laws on women's labor outcomes,...

There is evidence that the introduction of unilateral divorce legislation (UDL) starting in the late 1960s increased US divorce rates. We ask whether making divorce easier affected the educational structure of marriage. Based on marriage and divorce certificate data covering 1970-1988, we...

To analyze the impact of changes in the value of marriage on household decisions, we present a limited commitment framework of household behavior in which decisions are made regarding labor supply, divorce and housing demand over the lifecycle. We identify and estimate our structural model using...

Many demographic challenges and new trends have been observed across formerly state socialist countries after embarking on their political and economic transition. Including countries that range from Eastern Europe to Central Asia, this study explores whether some family-related events were more...

Can a policy intervention in the stressful first year after a birth affect marital stability? We examine this question using a large expansion in maternity benefits in 1982 in the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The program provided partially paid leave until the child's first...

This paper uses German survey data on married couples to examine the association of performance pay at work and subsequent separation or divorce. Despite extensive controls, performance pay remains associated with an increased probability of separation or divorce. Yet, the results are entirely...

This paper uses German survey data on married couples to examine the association of performance pay at work and subsequent separation or divorce. Despite extensive controls, performance pay remains associated with an increased probability of separation or divorce. Yet, the results are entirely...

This study evaluates the impact of an intimate partner violence prevention program in Rwanda, using a randomized controlled trial. The 22-week couples training program aimed to improve communication, shift gender attitudes, and promote gender equality. Randomizing at both the village and couple...

Economic inequality remains a persistent and widely studied issue in the social sciences. South Korea provides a striking example where the top 23 business groups, controlled by ultra-wealthy, family-owned conglomerates (chaebols), have maintained significant economic persistence and resisted...

Since 1972, the General Social Survey has periodically asked whether people are happy with Yes, Maybe or No type answers. Here I use a net "happiness" measure, which is percentage Yes less percentage No with Maybe treated as zero. Average happiness is around +20 on this scale for all respondents...

This work examines the effect of next-generation broadband on marriage rates among opposite- and same-sex couples in Spain. Given that the decision to sustain a relationship and enter into marriage is influenced by a broad spectrum of opportunities, high-speed broadband access can play a pivotal...