Divorce and the business cycle: a cross-country analysis

Rafael González-Val and Miriam Marcén

Review of Economics of the Household, 2017, vol. 15, issue 3, No 8, 879-904

Abstract: Abstract In this paper, we examine the role of the business cycle in divorce. To do so, we use a panel of 29 European countries covering the period from 1991 to 2012. We find the unemployment rate negatively affects the divorce rate, pointing to a pro-cyclical evolution of the divorce rate, even after controlling for socio-economic variables and unobservable characteristics that can vary by country, and/or over time. Results indicate that a one-percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate involves almost 0.025 fewer divorces per thousand inhabitants. The impact is small, representing around 1.2 % of the average divorce rate in Europe during the period considered. Supplementary analysis, developed to explore a possible non-linear pattern, confirms a negative relationship between unemployment and divorce in European countries, with the inverse relationship being more pronounced in those countries with higher divorce rates.

Keywords: Divorce; Unemployment; Business cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C23 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: Divorce and the business cycle: a cross-country analysis (2015)
Working Paper: Divorce and the Business cycle: A cross-country analysis (2015)
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DOI: 10.1007/s11150-016-9329-x

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