Citation

Brinig MF, Buckley FH. Int. Rev. Law Econ. 1998; 18(3): 325-340.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0144-8188(98)00008-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Absent transaction costs, the Coase Theorem suggests that divorce reform would work no change in the frequency of divorce but perhaps would alter the distribution of marital wealth. However, divorce does involve substantial process costs, which no-fault lowered. This paper explores the question of what happened to state divorce rates because of the legal changes wrought by the family law revolution that began in the 1970s, isolating the effect of the legal variable from other demographic and social factors that might also explain the variation in divorce rates across states and across time.