Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/335991 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 18343
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using 2001–2021 HILDA survey data, this paper estimates how separation or divorce affects poverty and employment trajectories over five years after the event. A difference-in-differences approach compares separated individuals with couples who stayed together, accounting for recent and long-term labour market history prior to separation. Women with preschool children face a 19.9 percentage point higher poverty risk in the first year, which fades within three years. Women with older or no children experience smaller but longer-lasting poverty increases. Pre-separation employment strongly moderates effects: non-employed women face much higher poverty risks than employed women who have similar poverty risks to men. Men's poverty impacts are smaller and shorter-lived. Separation barely changes women's employment but slightly reduces men's employment, especially those with preschool children.
Subjects: 
relationship breakdown
poverty
economic autonomy
JEL: 
I32
J12
J16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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