Determinants and consequences of pre-marital decisions in an environment with divorce

Abstract

This paper presents a model that seeks to explain why females enter marriages that have a high probability of Ending in divorce. The point of departure is the recognition that females have a finite life-time and there are returns to search and education in the marriage and labor markets. an important problem a person faces is one of allocation of ime. A model of optimal allocation of time is constructed in which females decide the allocation of time between remaining single and marrying, and in the case of singlehood the females decide whether to obtain education or not. Divorce is endogenous in the model and depends on a random variable introduced in the mating function, whose value is revealed to the female after she enters the marriage. I explain how conditions for divorce and the personal aversion to divorce influence the amount of time single decision. The empirical results indicate that in states of the U.S. where it is easier to get divorced, females are single for a shorter period, while Catholic females stay single for a longer period. In addition, the empirical results seem to indicate that the Amount of time single and the amount of time studying should not be considered exogenous variables in the study of the probability of divorce or the study of the mating function.