Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51984 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5594
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We develop a collective household model with spousal matching in which there exists marital gains to assortative matching and marriage quality for each couple is revealed ex post. Changes in alimony laws are shown to affect existing couples and couples-to-be differently. For existing couples, legislative changes that favor (wo)men benefit them especially if the marriage match quality is low, while, for couples not yet formed, they generate offsetting intra-household transfers and lower intra-marital allocations for the spouses who are the intended beneficiary. We then estimate the effect of granting alimony rights to cohabiting couples in Canada using a triple-difference framework since each province extended these rights in different years and requiring different cohabitation length. We find that obtaining the right to petition for alimony led women to lower their labor force participation. These results, however, do not hold - and, in some cases, are reversed - for newly formed cohabiting couples.
Subjects: 
intra-household allocations
matching
cohabitation
alimony laws
JEL: 
J12
J16
J24
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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