This article bridges the literatures on the economic consequences of divorce for women with that on marital transitions and health by focusing on women's health insurance. Using a monthly calendar of marital status and health insurance coverage from 1,442 women in the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we examine how women's health insurance changes after divorce. Our estimates suggest...

This paper investigates whether an adverse family background amplifies the distressing effects of divorce. We use several waves (at age 0, 7, 11, 16, 33, and 42) of the British National Child Development Study to study the effect of divorce on psychological distress in middle adulthood (between ages 33 and 42). We measure family background with indicators such as father’s social class, poverty ...

Divorce represents the dissolution of a social tie, but it is also possible that attitudes about divorce flow across social ties. To explore how social networks influence divorce and vice versa, we exploit a longitudinal data set from the long-running Framingham Heart Study. The results suggest that divorce can spread between friends. Clusters of divorces extend to two degrees of separation in ...

This paper explores the role of the birth control pill on divorce. To identify its effect, we use a quasi experiment exploiting the differences in the language of the Comstock antiobscenity statutes approved in the 1800s and early 1900s in the US. Results suggest that banning the sales of oral contraceptive methods has a negative impact on divorce. These findings are robust to alternative speci...

The literature on children of divorce presents three theories on the relationship between a child's age at divorce and subsequent adaptation. Outpatient evaluations of 144 children of divorce, ranging in age from seven to 17 years, were coded for nature of emotional-behavioral problems and overall degree of psychological adjustment. Divorce timing was unrelated to overall level of adjustment, b...

The connection between divorce and suicide risk in Asia is unclear. To understand the contribution of cultural transitions to suicide among the divorced, we compare age- and sex-specific suicide rates among divorced men and women from five Pacific Rim populations: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the state of Victoria in Australia. On a cultural spectrum, we consider Hong Kong and Taiw...

Since the early 1970's, research has been done on the negative effects of divorce on children’s well-being and the intergenerational transmission of divorce risks in the USA. Especially the public opinion in the United States has been one of enormous concern for the effects on children, since divorce rates have developed strongly, and are still significantly higher than in any other country in ...

China’s rapid economic growth and significant increase in divorce and remarriage rates since the early 1980s provide an excellent case for studying the divorce and remarriage patterns in economic transition. Following extremely low divorce and remarriage rates in the 1960s and 1970s, China’s crude divorce rate increased from 0.33 in 1979 to 1.59 in 2007, and the percentage of remarriages among ...