Hanlon, Michael --- "The State’s Choice of Divorce Law" [2011] ELECD 597; in Cohen, R. Lloyd; Wright, D. Joshua (eds), "Research Handbook on the Economics of Family Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Economics of Family Law

Editor(s): Cohen, R. Lloyd; Wright, D. Joshua

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848444379

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: The State’s Choice of Divorce Law

Author(s): Hanlon, Michael

Number of pages: 13

Extract:

5 The state's choice of divorce law
Michael Hanlon*


1. INTRODUCTION

In this study, I model a state's choice of divorce law. Theoretically, I predict states in
which marriage-market competition was the most intense for males should have adopted
"liberal" divorce laws, such as unilateral divorce and no-fault property settlements.
Empirically, I estimate the relationship between a state's divorce law and the male-female
ratio for the marriage-age population. Consistent with the theory, I find that higher male-
to-female ratios are strongly associated with liberal divorce laws.
From 1969 to 1985, most jurisdictions in the United States altered their laws governing
divorce. Prior to this "no-fault revolution," nearly every state employed some form of
consent and/or fault-based divorce. In consent states, spouses effectively had to agree on
divorce. In fault states, one spouse had to bear the cost to establish legal fault. By 1974,
a majority of states had adopted some form of unilateral divorce, in which one spouse
could terminate the marriage without the other's consent. Moreover, most states dropped
the requirement of legal fault.
Crucially, states varied in how intensely divorce laws were liberalized, and the current
variation in divorce laws across states is significant. Some states still retain consent,
fault-based divorce, while others employ unilateral divorce in which fault is irrelevant to
property settlements. The objective of this study is to understand this variation. In some
respects, this analysis follows Allen (1998), who examined the ...