Skip Navigation



Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization Advance Access published online on September 15, 2006
Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, doi:10.1093/jleo/ewm013
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
23/3/580    most recent
ewm013v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Allen, D. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Yale University. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Article

The Effect on Divorce of Legislated Net-Wealth Transfers

Douglas W. Allen 1 *

1 Simon Fraser University

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Douglas W. Allen, E-mail: allen{at}sfu.ca


  Abstract

In recent years, legislatures have imposed several types of guidelines restricting court discretion. Guidelines designed around "average" cases, however, can lead to problems for "nonaverage" situations. In the context of divorce, poorly designed child support guidelines may create an opportunity for a net-wealth transfer in excess of the costs of children for "nonaverage" families and therefore create an incentive to divorce. This incentive to divorce, when coupled with the ability to divorce under no-fault laws, may lead to higher divorce rates for certain classes of couples. This article exploits the 1997 Canada Child Support Guidelines to test the divorce prediction using data from the Survey of Labour Income Dynamics. I find separation rates increase after implementation of the Guidelines among couples with income of $25,000 per year.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.