How does parental divorce affect children's long-term outcomes?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Frimmel, Wolfgang; Halla, Martin; Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf
• 署名单位: Johannes Kepler University Linz; Vienna University of Economics & Business; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105201
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: Divorce; CHILDREN; human capital; fertility; Workplace gender balance

摘要

Many papers report a negative association between parental divorce and child outcomes. To provide evidence whether this correlation is causal, we exploit idiosyncratic variation in the extent of gender balance in fathers' workplaces. Fathers who encounter more women in their relevant age-occupation-group at work are more likely to divorce. This result is conditional on the overall proportion of female employees in a firm and on detailed industry affiliation. Parental divorce has persistent, and mostly negative effects on children that differ between boys and girls. Treated boys have lower levels of educational attainment, worse labor market outcomes and are more likely to die early. Treated girls also have lower levels of educational attainment, but they are also more likely to have children at an early age (especially in their teens). However, treated girls lose less in terms of employment. This could be a direct consequence of teenage motherhood, which initiates early entry into the labor market.