Yours, Mine, and Ours: Do Divorce Laws Affect the Intertemporal Behavior of Married Couples?

Alessandra Voena

American Economic Review, 2015, vol. 105, issue 8, 2295-2332

Abstract: This paper examines how divorce laws affect couples' intertemporal choices and well-being. Exploiting panel variation in US laws, I estimate the parameters of a model of household decision-making. Household survey data indicate that the introduction of unilateral divorce in states that imposed an equal division of property is associated with higher household savings and lower female employment, implying a distortion in household assets accumulation and a transfer toward wives whose share in household resources is smaller than the one of their husband. When spouses share consumption equally, separate property or prenuptial agreements can reduce distortions and increase equity. (JEL D13, D14, D91, J12, J16, K36)

JEL-codes: D13 D14 D91 J12 J16 K36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20120234
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (212)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.20120234 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/10508/20120234_data.zip (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10508/20120234_ds.zip (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/app/10508/20120234_app.pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/10508/20120234_data.zip (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10508/20120234_ds.zip (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/app/10508/20120234_app.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Yours, Mine and Ours: Do Divorce Laws Affect the Intertemporal Behavior of Married Couples? (2011)
Working Paper: Yours, Mine and Ours: Do Divorce Laws affect the Intertemporal Behavior of Married Couples?? (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:105:y:2015:i:8:p:2295-2332

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().