No-Fault Divorce and the Compression of Marriage Ages |
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| Authors: | Douglas W. Allen Krishna Pendakur Wing Suen |
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| Affiliation: | Allen:;Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC V5A 1S6, Canada. Phone 604-291-3445, Fax 604-291-5994, E-mail Pendakur:;Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC V5A 1S6, Canada. Phone 604-291-5501, Fax 604-291-5994, E-mail Suen:;Department of Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin NT Hong Kong. Phone 852-2609-7035, Fax 852-2609-5805, E-mail |
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| Abstract: | ![]()
We examine how no-fault divorce law affects the age at first marriage, when everyone has a different value of marriage. The heterogeneity of individual values implies an unambiguous negative effect on the variance of marriage age. We test this hypothesis with marriage records from 1970 to 1995. Controlling for state-level heterogeneity and for time trends, the standard deviation of the log age at first marriage drops by approximately 5% with the introduction of no-fault divorce. We find that the mean age at first marriage increases slightly, suggesting that the mean person is slightly worse off with no-fault divorce. (JEL K0 , D1 ) |
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