Divorce Law and Women’s Labor Supply

Divorce law changes made in the 1970s affected marital formation, dissolution, and bargaining within marriage. By altering the terms of the marital contract, these legal changes impacted the incentives for women to enter and remain in the labor force. Whereas earlier work suggests that the impact of unilateral divorce on female employment depends critically on laws governing property division, I show that these results are not robust to alternative specifications and controls. I find, instead, that unilateral divorce led to an increase in both married and unmarried female labor force participation, regardless of the preexisting laws regarding property division.