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Changes in divorce patterns: Culture and the law

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  • Hiller, Victor
  • Recoules, Magali

Abstract

This article focuses on the mutual interplay between changes in divorce rates, divorce laws and cultural acceptance of divorce. The latter differs among individuals and evolves endogenously via cultural transmission mechanisms in which children's preferences are partly shaped by divorce decisions of their parents. In turn, divorce law is chosen by majority voting. The dynamics of the economy may exhibit multiple long-run equilibria. Economic shocks can destabilize the low-divorce equilibrium: through cultural evolutions, divorce rates increase and divorce law may be modified. In compliance with stylized facts, the results show that legal changes occurred after that divorce rates had started to rise.

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  • Hiller, Victor & Recoules, Magali, 2013. "Changes in divorce patterns: Culture and the law," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 77-87.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:34:y:2013:i:c:p:77-87
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2013.01.002
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    Cited by:

    1. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan & Hassan Fereidouni Gholipour, 2016. "Divorce and the cost of housing: evidence from Iran," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 1029-1054, December.
    2. Siwan Anderson & Chris Bidner, 2021. "An Institutional Perspective on the Economics of the Family," Discussion Papers dp21-14, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    3. Jiaping Zhang & Mingwang Cheng & Xinyu Wei & Xiaomei Gong, 2018. "Does Mobile Phone Penetration Affect Divorce Rate? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-19, October.
    4. Korhonen Marko & Puhakka Mikko, 2021. "The Behavior of Divorce Rates: A Smooth Transition Regression Approach," Journal of Time Series Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, January.

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