• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Spousal Conflict and Divorce
  • Contributor: Zhylyevskyy, Oleksandr
  • Published: University of Chicago Press, 2012
  • Published in: Journal of Labor Economics, 30 (2012) 4, Seite 915-962
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1086/666654
  • ISSN: 0734-306X; 1537-5307
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <p>The optimal balance between keeping marriages intact, despite spousal conflict, and allowing for divorce is a subject of policy debate in the United States. To explore the trade-offs, I construct a structural model with information asymmetries, which may generate inefficient outcomes. Parameters are estimated using data from the National Survey of Families and Households. I find that eliminating separation periods decreases the conflict rate by 9.2% of its baseline level and increases the divorce rate by 4.0%. Perfect child support enforcement decreases the frequency of conflict and divorce by 2.7% and 21.2%, respectively, and reduces the incidence of inefficient divorces.</p>