TY  - JOUR
AU  - Alesina,Alberto
AU  - Giuliano,Paola
TI  - Divorce, Fertility and the Shot Gun Marriage
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12375
PY  - 2006
Y2  - July 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12375
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12375.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alberto F. Alesina
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center 210
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-8388
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: aalesina@harvard.edu

Paola Giuliano
Anderson School of Management
UCLA
110 Westwood Plaza
C517 Entrepreneurs Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481
Tel: 310/206-6890
Fax: 310/825-4011
E-Mail: paola.giuliano@anderson.ucla.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2006-07-24
AB  - Total fertility declined in states that introduced unilateral divorce, which makes dissolution of marriage easier.  Also the ratio of out-of-wedlock fertility over total declined. We suggest an explanation (and provide supportive evidence for it) based upon the effect of divorce laws on the probability of entering and exiting marriage. Women planning to have children marry more easily with an easier "exit option" from marriage. Thus, more children are born in the first years of marriage, while the total marital fertility does not change, probably as a result of an increase in divorces and marital instability.
ER  -