IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v21y2009i24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When Harry left Sally: A New Estimate of Marital Disruption in the U.S., 1860 - 1948

Author

Listed:
  • Tomas Cvrcek

    (Clemson University)

Abstract

Divorce rate is a poor indicator of marital instability because many marital disruptions never become divorces. This paper provides the first estimate of the rate of marital disruption in the U.S. in 1860 - 1948. Marital disruption rate was similar to divorce rate after the Civil War but the two rates wildly diverged in the early 20th century. In 1900 - 1930, the disruption rate was as much as double the divorce rate, implying that perhaps half of all disruptions never reached the court. In the long run, the cohort rate of marital disruption increased from about 10% in the mid-1860s to about 30% in the 1940s.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomas Cvrcek, 2009. "When Harry left Sally: A New Estimate of Marital Disruption in the U.S., 1860 - 1948," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 21(24), pages 719-758.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:21:y:2009:i:24
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2009.21.24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol21/24/21-24.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2009.21.24?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Samuel Preston & John McDonald, 1979. "The incidence of divorce within cohorts of American marriages contracted since the civil war," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 16(1), pages 1-25, February.
    2. Ken Smith & Cathleen Zick, 1994. "Linked lives, dependent demise? Survival analysis of husbands and wives," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(1), pages 81-93, February.
    3. Teresa Martin & Larry Bumpass, 1989. "Recent trends in marital disruption," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 26(1), pages 37-51, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthew J. Hill, 2014. "Love in the time of the depression: The effect of economic conditions on marriage in the Great Depression," Economics Working Papers 1454, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    2. Peter Koudijs & Laura Salisbury, 2016. "Bankruptcy and Investment: Evidence from Changes in Marital Property Laws in the U.S. South, 1840-1850," NBER Working Papers 21952, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. R. Kelly Raley & Larry L. Bumpass, 2003. "The topography of the divorce plateau," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 8(8), pages 245-260.
    2. England, Paula, 1999. "The case for comparable worth," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 743-755.
    3. Espinosa, Javier & Evans, William N., 2013. "Maternal bereavement: The heightened mortality of mothers after the death of a child," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 371-381.
    4. Newton, Nicky J. & Ryan, Lindsay H. & King, Rachel T. & Smith, Jacqui, 2014. "Cohort differences in the marriage–health relationship for midlife women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 64-72.
    5. Maite Blázquez Cuesta & Elena Cottini & Herrarte, A. (Ainhoa), 2012. "GINI DP 39: Socioeconomic Gradient in Health: How Important is Material Deprivation?," GINI Discussion Papers 39, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    6. Peter A. F. Fraser‐Mackenzie & Tiejun Ma & Ming‐Chien Sung & Johnnie E. V. Johnson, 2019. "Let's Call it Quits: Break‐Even Effects in the Decision to Stop Taking Risks," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(7), pages 1560-1581, July.
    7. Vladimir M. Shkolnikov & Evgeny M. Andreev & Dmitri A. Jdanov & Domantas Jasilionis & Tapani Valkonen, 2009. "To what extent do rising mortality inequalities by education and marital status attenuate the general mortality decline? The case of Finland in 1971-2030," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2009-018, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    8. Oparinde, Adewale, 2010. "Investigating the relationship between income, health and biomass consumption: a panel data analysis," MPRA Paper 39305, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Espinosa, Javier & Evans, William N., 2008. "Heightened mortality after the death of a spouse: Marriage protection or marriage selection?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1326-1342, September.
    10. Munch, Jakob Roland & Svarer, Michael, 2005. "Mortality and socio-economic differences in Denmark: a competing risks proportional hazard model," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 17-32, March.
    11. repec:pri:crcwel:wp07-07-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Lucia Coppola & Mariachiara Di Cesare, 2008. "How fertility and union stability interact in shaping new family patterns in Italy and Spain," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 18(4), pages 117-144.
    13. Magdalena M. Muszynska, 2006. "Woman’s employment and union disruption in a changing socio-economic context: the case of Russia," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2006-027, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    14. Ribar, David C., 2004. "What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of Quantitative Methodologies," IZA Discussion Papers 998, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Jui-Chung Allen Li, 2006. "The institutionalization and pace of fertility in American stepfamilies," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 14(12), pages 237-266.
    16. Liliana E. Pezzin & Robert A. Pollak & Barbara Steinberg Schone, 2008. "Parental Marital Disruption, Family Type, and Transfers to Disabled Elderly Parents," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 63(6), pages 349-358.
    17. repec:pri:crcwel:wp06-28-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Hector Chade & Gustavo Ventura, 2002. "Taxes and Marriage: A Two-Sided Search Analysis," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(3), pages 955-986, August.
    19. Janice Compton & Robert A Pollak, 2021. "The life expectancy of older couples and surviving spouses," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-13, May.
    20. Cvrcek, Tomas, 2012. "America's settling down: How better jobs and falling immigration led to a rise in marriage, 1880–1930," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 335-351.
    21. Andrew Cherlin, 1990. "Recent Changes in American Fertility, Marriage, and Divorce," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 510(1), pages 145-154, July.
    22. Liat Raz-Yurovich, 2010. "Men´s and women´s economic activity and first marriage: Jews in Israel, 1987-1995," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 22(29), pages 933-964.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    divorce; separation; marital disruption;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:21:y:2009:i:24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.