Does Custody Law Affect Family Behavior In and Out of Marriage?

René Böheim, Marco Francesconi and Martin Halla

No 7064, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We examine the effect of joint custody on marriage, divorce, fertility and female employment in Austria using individual-level administrative data, covering the entire population. We also use unique data obtained from court records to analyze the effect on post-divorce outcomes. Our estimates show that joint custody significantly reduces divorce and female employment rates, significantly increases marriage and marital birth rates, and leads to a substantial increase in the total money transfer received by mothers after divorce. We interpret these results as evidence against Becker-Coase bargains and in support of a mechanism driven by a resource redistribution that favors men giving them greater incentives to invest in marriage specific capital.

Keywords: divorce; fertility; bargaining; intrahousehold allocations; Austria (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J13 J18 K36 N32 R2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2012-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Does Custody Law Affect Family Behavior In and Out of Marriage? (2013)
Working Paper: Does Custody Law Affect Family Behavior In and Out of Marriage? (2013)
Working Paper: Does Custody Law Affect Family Behavior In and Out of Marriage? (2012)
Working Paper: Does custody law affect family behavior in and out of marriage? (2012)
Working Paper: Does custody law affect family behavior in and out of marriage? (2012)
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