IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dbl/dblwop/246.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The effect of property division laws on divorce and labor supply: evidence from Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Brassiolo, Pablo

Abstract

I study how the relative bargaining position of spouses affects the incidence of marital dissolution and the labor supply decision of intact couples. I identify exogenous variation in bargaining position within the household by exploiting a natural experiment in Spain where different regions have different rules to divide marital property in case of divorce. I benefit from two law changes to the separation of property regime in Catalonia, with opposite expected effects on the bargaining position of spouses. I found that a reform that unexpectedly improved the position of the wife within the marriage increased the divorce rate in around 13 percent in the short run, and although this effect seemed to dissipate over time, it remained positive one decade afterwards. For intact couples, I find that the same reform caused a reduction in female labor supply of between 0.6 and 2.5 hours per week, and also a reduction in their probability of employment of 2 percent. Moreover, when the previous improvement in wives' bargaining position was undone by a reform to the scope of marital contracts, female labor supply reacted in the opposite way, with an increase in hours worked and the probability of employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Brassiolo, Pablo, 2013. "The effect of property division laws on divorce and labor supply: evidence from Spain," Research Department working papers 246, CAF Development Bank Of Latinamerica.
    • Handle: RePEc:dbl:dblwop:246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/246
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Goussé, Marion & Leturcq, Marion, 2022. "More or less unmarried. The impact of legal settings of cohabitation on labour market outcomes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    2. Nicolas Frémeaux & Marion Leturcq, 2013. "Plus ou moins mariés : l'évolution du mariage et des régimes matrimoniaux en France," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 462(1), pages 125-151.
    3. Theresa Nutz & Anika Nelles & Philipp M. Lersch, 2022. "Who Opts Out? The Customisation of Marriage in the German Matrimonial Property Regime," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(3), pages 353-375, August.
    4. Zhang, Yu & Yang, Ge & Li, Muhan & Yao, Mengjie, 2024. "Pre-marital homeownership as self-protection against divorce risks: Evidence from China's property division regime change," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Stephanie Lluis & Yazhuo (Annie) Pan, 2018. "Marital Property Laws and Women’s Labour Supply," Working Papers 1809, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics, revised 12 Nov 2018.
    6. Frémeaux, Nicolas & Leturcq, Marion, 2018. "Prenuptial agreements and matrimonial property regimes in France, 1855–2010," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 132-142.
    7. Schaubert, Marianna, 2018. "Do Alimony Regulations Matter inside Marriage? Evidence from the 2008 Reform of the German Maintenance Law," EconStor Preprints 173193, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    8. Marianna Schaubert, 2023. "Do Alimony Regulations Matter Inside Marriage? Evidence from the 2008 Reform of the German Maintenance Law," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 145-178, June.
    9. Schaubert, Marianna, 2018. "Do Alimony Regulations Matter inside Marriage? Evidence from the 2008 Reform of the German Maintenance Law," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181508, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    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:dbl:dblwop:246. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Pablo Rolando (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cafffve.html .

    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.