Is making divorce easier bad for children? The long-run implications of unilateral divorce

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gruber, J
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/423155
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 799-833
• 关键词: parental divorce; intergenerational transmission; educational-attainment; family disruption; Substance use; childhood; adulthood; marriage; CONSEQUENCES; dissolution

摘要

I assess the long-run implications for children of growing up in a unilateral divorce environment, which increases the ease of divorce by not requiring the explicit consent of both partners. Using 40 years of census data to exploit the variation across states and over time in changes in divorce regulation, I confirm that unilateral divorce regulations do significantly increase the incidence of divorce. Adults who were exposed to unilateral divorce regulations as children are less well educated, have lower family incomes, marry earlier but separate more often, and have higher odds of adult suicide.