2004), "The Impact of Divorce Laws on Marriage

Marriage rates have declined dramatically over the last 30 years. This paper studies to what extent divorce laws have changed incentives to marry. Using US state level panel data I provide evidence that after the adoption of unilateral divorce, marriage rates declined significantly and permanently in adopting states. This decline accounts for half of the initial gap in marriage rates between adopting and non-adopting states. The effect of unilateral divorce law is greatest for marriage rates amongst younger age cohorts, those marrying for the first time, and whites. The duration of marriages that take place under unilateral divorce is also found to be significantly greater than those that occur under mutual consent. Taken together the results suggest unilateral divorce law reduces incentives to marry, but those couples that do marry are better matched than under mutual consent. This is argued to be consistent with a model of search in marriage markets, where individuals learn the true gains of marriage over divorce before and during marriage