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Does community property discourage unpartnered births?

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  • Ekert-Jaffe, Olivia
  • Grossbard, Shoshana

Abstract

This paper investigates the likelihood of an unpartnered birth as a function of laws regulating the division of joint property in case of divorce. Based on a rational choice model of marriage and assuming that on average women earn less than men, we predict that women are less likely to have an unpartnered birth when rules for the division of joint property are more advantageous to spouses with lower earnings. We derive more predictions regarding the effects of age, non-intact home, and religiosity, and the interaction between these variables and legal regime regarding divorce. We test our predictions with retrospective data from the Family Fertility Surveys collected in the 1990s. Most of our predictions are confirmed by a multi-country analysis for 17 legal regimes in 12 Western countries as well as single-country analyses for four countries. Our major findings are that the likelihood of an unpartnered birth is higher in countries that offer most women less access to joint property in case of divorce, and that this effect is weaker for teenagers than for women in their twenties.

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  • Ekert-Jaffe, Olivia & Grossbard, Shoshana, 2008. "Does community property discourage unpartnered births?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 25-40, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:24:y:2008:i:1:p:25-40
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    Cited by:

    1. Jirjahn, Uwe & Chadi, Cornelia, 2016. "Risk Attitude and Nonmarital Birth," IZA Discussion Papers 10316, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Uwe Jirjahn & Cornelia Chadi, 2020. "Out-of-partnership births in East and West Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 853-881, September.
    3. Shoshana Grossbard & Victoria Vernon, 2017. "Common Law Marriage and Teen Births," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 129-145, March.
    4. Shoshana Grossbard & Victoria Vernon, 2014. "Common law marriage and couple formation," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-26, December.
    5. Grossbard, Shoshana, 2016. "Marriage and Marriage Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 10312, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Bansak, Cynthia & Grossbard, Shoshana & Wong, Crystal (Ho Po), 2021. "Mothers' Caregiving during COVID: The Impact of Divorce Laws and Homeownership on Women's Labor Force Status," IZA Discussion Papers 14408, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Grossbard, Shoshana, 2023. "Spouses as Home Health Workers and Cooks: Insights for Applied Research," IZA Discussion Papers 16182, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Alessandro Cigno, 2012. "Marriage as a commitment device," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 193-213, June.
    9. Jose V. Gallegos & Jan I. Ondrich, 2017. "The effects of the Chilean divorce law on women’s first birth decisions," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 857-877, September.
    10. Shoshana Grossbard, 2023. "Non-Marital Childbearing and Marital Property Laws: An Application of the WIHO Model," Working Papers 2023-005, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    11. Grossbard, Shoshana & Vernon, Victoria, 2014. "Common Law Marriage and Male/Female Convergence in Labor Supply and Time Use," IZA Discussion Papers 7937, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Carmen Deere & Abena Oduro & Hema Swaminathan & Cheryl Doss, 2013. "Property rights and the gender distribution of wealth in Ecuador, Ghana and India," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(2), pages 249-265, June.
    13. Hazem Alshaikhmubarak & R. Richard Geddes & Shoshana A. Grossbard, 2019. "Single Motherhood and the Abolition of Coverture in the United States," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 94-118, March.
    14. Jeanne Lafortune & Corinne Low, 2017. "Tying the Double-Knot: The Role of Assets in Marriage Commitment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 163-167, May.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • K3 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law

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