The Economic Consequences of Divorce and Separation in Colombia

Guarín, Angela () and Andrés Ham
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Guarín, Angela: Universidad de los Andes

No 18506, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: This article provides evidence on the economic consequences of union dissolution, divorce, and the breakup of cohabiting unions, using three waves of a nationally representative longitudinal survey. We estimate individual fixed-effects models with region-specific time trends and conduct a battery of robustness checks to address selection. Results show no average change in household resources, but sharp gender and spatial asymmetries. After separation, men's per-capita household income rises by about 40 percent, while women's falls by 20 percent in urban areas and nearly 45 percent in rural ones. Two mechanisms explain the gap: (i) household size contracts for men but not for women because children remain with mothers, and (ii) urban women partly offset losses through greater transfers and a 14 percentage point rise in employment, options largely unavailable to rural women. By separately identifying marriage and cohabitation break-ups in a middle-income country with limited safety nets, this study extends the literature on the consequences of union dissolution and highlights policy levers, child-support enforcement, cash transfers, and childcare access, needed to mitigate post-separation poverty, especially for rural mothers.

Keywords: divorce; separation; union dissolution; Colombia; panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam
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