The economic consequences of experiencing parental marital disruptions

Abstract

This paper examines the long-run consequences for children of parental marital disruption, focusing upon the labor market performance of sons during their 23rd year. Theoretically, marital disruption may affect a child's subsequent economic circumstances by reducing the amount of income and parental time available to him and by confronting him with changed opportunities regarding schooling, work, and own-household decisions. We test for the presence of such effects using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The empirical results suggest that parental marital disruption does have negative long-run implications for the labor market performance of children, a major reason for which is the consequent reduction of inputs into the parental household.