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...

Using a life-cycle model of household consumption and investment under family transitions, we investigate the long-run financial outcomes of divorces. We find divorce leads to a reduction in wealth, and the loss is larger for higher-educated women. Earlier fertility and a smaller parenthood...

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...

Using a panel dataset covering 27 European countries over a 53-year period, this study examines the relationship between paid paternity leave reforms and divorce rates. Controlling for policyrelated factors and other legislative changes affecting divorce, the dynamic analysis reveals that while...

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...

Household dissolution is a key concern in family economics, with implications for individual welfare, child outcomes, income trajectories, or wealth, which ultimately impact inequality and vulnerability. This paper examines how wage dynamics relate to the stability of dual-earner households,...

We show that separation has been a relevant outcome of American relationships over the last century and that separated women have worse economic outcomes than those divorced. A transferable-utility model of marriage, separation and divorce indicates that the welfare effects of divorce...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...