Divorce laws and fertility decisions

Héctor Bellido and Miriam Marcén

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper explores the effect of divorce law reform on fertility. By modifying the value of marriage, the adoption of no-fault and unilateral divorce may impact fertility decisions. To identify the effects of those reforms on fertility, we use a quasi experiment exploiting the legislative history of divorce liberalization across Europe. Results suggest that divorce law reforms have a negative and permanent effect on fertility. These findings are robust to alternative specifications and controls for unobserved country-specific factors, time-varying factors at the country level, the liberalization of abortion, and the availability of the birth-control pill. Supplemental analysis, developed to understand the mechanisms through which divorce law reforms affect fertility, shows that both marital and out-of-wedlock fertility declines, but that the impact on marital fertility varies depending on whether couples are married prior to or after divorce law reform.

Keywords: Fertility Rate, Divorce Law, Abortion Law; Oral Contraception (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J13 K36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-04-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/48309/1/MPRA_paper_48309.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:30243

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