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dc.contributor.authorMechoulan, S.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-09-24T14:59:54Z
dc.date.available2013-09-24T14:59:54Z
dc.date.issued2006-01en_US
dc.identifier.citationMechoulan, S.. 2006. "Divorce laws and the structure of the American family." Journal of Legal Studies 35(1): 143-174. © 2006 by Journal of Legal Studies.en_US
dc.identifier.issn0047-2530en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1086/498832en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10222/36412
dc.description.abstractThis paper investigates the impact of no-fault divorce laws on marriage and divorce in the United States. I propose a theory that captures the key stylized facts of the rising then declining divorce rates and the apparent convergence of divorce rates across the different divorce regimes. The empirical results suggest that a shift from fault to no-fault divorce increased the odds of divorcing for those couples who married before the shift. The analysis further suggests that those couples who marry after the shift to a no-fault regime, in turn, sort themselves better upon marriage, which offsets the direct effect of the law on divorce rates. Consistent with that selectivity argument, after a switch to a no-fault divorce regime, women get married later in life. These results hold for the law that governs property division and spousal support. The law that governs divorce grounds does not seem to matter significantly.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUNIV CHICAGO PRESSen_US
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of Legal Studiesen_US
dc.titleDivorce laws and the structure of the American familyen_US
dc.typearticleen_US
dc.identifier.volume35en_US
dc.identifier.issue1en_US
dc.identifier.startpage143en_US
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