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Commitments and the Marital Match: The Effect of Alimony Reform on Assortative Matching

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dc.contributor.authorFernández Kranz, Daniel
dc.contributor.authorRoff, Jennifer
dc.contributor.rorhttps://ror.org/02jjdwm75
dc.date.accessioned2025-04-07T15:59:27Z
dc.date.available2025-04-07T15:59:27Z
dc.date.issued2021-11
dc.description.abstractThis paper examines the effects of reforms that reduced alimony on matching in the marriage market. Recent literature indicates that divorce law changes which reduce commitment or income-sharing upon separation will lead to an increase in assortative matching, as women forgo specialization which may not be compensated upon divorce. Using state-level data on alimony reform that reduced the entitlements of eligible spouses and American Community Survey data on marriage and the characteristics of newlyweds, we find that alimony reform increased measures of spousal covariance in education. Our results indicate that correlation coefficients on spousal degree attainment consistently rise with alimony reform, and regression-based measures of assortative matching increase similarly. Moreover, we find the largest effects among those groups who might be more sensitive to the reform. Regression-based measures of assortative matching increase by over 10% among couples in which at least one partner had previously been married and by 9% among those couples who marry in states with less generous property division and child support which are often treated as substitutes for alimony in divorce settlements
dc.description.peerreviewedyes
dc.description.statusPublished
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationFernández-Kranz, D., & Roff, J. L. (2021). Commitments and the marital match: The effect of alimony reform on assortative matching (No. 14877). IZA Discussion Papers.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14417/3717
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherIZA
dc.relation.departmentEconomics
dc.relation.entityIE University
dc.relation.schoolIE Business School
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
dc.rights.accessRightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en
dc.subject.keywordMarriage
dc.subject.keywordMatching
dc.subject.keywordDivorce law
dc.subject.keywordAlimony
dc.subject.keywordAssortative matching
dc.subject.keywordCommitment mechanisms
dc.titleCommitments and the Marital Match: The Effect of Alimony Reform on Assortative Matching
dc.typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaper
dc.version.typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dspace.entity.typePublication
relation.isAuthorOfPublicationad6e9507-ead9-4420-bd46-155a196375b0
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscoveryad6e9507-ead9-4420-bd46-155a196375b0
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