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Does custody law affect family behavior in and out of marriage?

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  • René Böheim
  • Mario Francesconi
  • Martin Halla

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.

Suggested Citation

  • René Böheim & Mario Francesconi & Martin Halla, 2012. "Does custody law affect family behavior in and out of marriage?," Economics working papers 2012-12, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    • Handle: RePEc:jku:econwp:2012_12
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    File URL: http://www.econ.jku.at/papers/2012/wp1212.pdf
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Joint custody, marriages, divorces and the rest
      by René Böheim in Econ Tidbits on 2012-12-05 17:55:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Halla, 2015. "Do joint custody laws improve family well-being?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 147-147, May.
    2. Elke Claessens & Dimitri Mortelmans, 2025. "Joint Physical Custody in Europe: A Comparative Exploration," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 41(1), pages 1-21, December.
    3. Carole Bonnet & Bertrand Garbinti & Anne Solaz, 2022. "Does Part-Time Mothering Help Get a Job? The Role of Shared Custody in Women’s Employment," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(5), pages 885-913, December.
    4. de Blasio, Guido & Vuri, Daniela, 2013. "Joint Custody in the Italian Courts," IZA Discussion Papers 7472, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Fernandez-Kranz, Daniel & Nollenberger, Natalia, 2022. "The impact of equal parenting time laws on family outcomes and risky behavior by teenagers: Evidence from Spain," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 303-325.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Divorce; Fertility; Bargaining; Intrahousehold Allocations; Austria;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • K36 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Family and Personal Law
    • N32 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • R2 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis

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