Social Assistance and Conjugal Union Dissolution in Canada: A Dynamic Analysis

Pierre Lefebvre and Philip Merrigan

Canadian Journal of Economics, 1997, vol. 30, issue 1, 112-34

Abstract: Using Statistics Canada's General Social Survey on Family and Friends, carried out in 1990, we piece together the matrimonial and conjugal life history of a large sample of Canadian men and women. We then estimate duration models (Cox's proportional hazard models) describing the evolutionary laws of marriages and unions, which depend on various economic or socio-demographic explanatory variables. The empirical modelling focuses primarily on estimating the impact of couples' earned incomes and of provincial welfare programs on the dissolution rate of first marriages and unions. According to the estimation results, models of marriage-cohabitation duration of Canadian couples are misspecified when they do not incorporate economic variables. We also find that welfare benefits do not have an impact on the hazard of union dissolution and that earned incomes have a positive effect on conjugal stability.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0008-4085%2819970 ... AACUD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7 (text/html)
only available to JSTOR subscribers

Related works:
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:cje:issued:v:30:y:1997:i:1:p:112-34

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.economic ... ionen/membership.php

Access Statistics for this article

Canadian Journal of Economics is currently edited by Zhiqi Chen

More articles in Canadian Journal of Economics from Canadian Economics Association Canadian Economics Association Prof. Werrner Antweiler, Treasurer UBC Sauder School of Business 2053 Main Mall Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Prof. Werner Antweiler ().