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Title: Do Gender-Neutral Custody Laws Increase Divorce Rates?

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: I examine the impact of gender-neutral custody laws on divorce. I develop the first systematic coding of custody law changes over the twentieth century and show that states movement from maternal preference to gender-neutral custody laws is independent of the adoption of unilateral divorce laws. I exploit the variation across states in the timing of the legal changes to identify the effect of the new custody law on divorce. I find that changes in custody laws have a dynamic effect on divorce rates. The divorce rate begins to increase approximately seven years after a states adoption of the new custody law and persists thereafter. The magnitude of the increase is between 0.1 and 0.2 divorces per 1,000 people per year. Changes in custody laws also increase the likelihood of being separated by roughly 0.5 percentage points for women and 0.3 percentage points for men. The effects I find for changes in custody laws are independent of those of unilateral divorce. The results suggest that child custody law reform play an important and overlooked role in marital dissolution in the U.S.

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Authors: Chen, Yang

Publisher: The Ohio State University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage

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