Explaining divorce rate determinants: new evidence from Spain

ABSTRACT

This article examines the main determinants of divorce rates in Spain for the period 1995 to 2010. According to the results, the so-called Express Divorce Law (passed in 2005) seems to be positively associated with divorce rates in the short term. Income level and growth, female employment rate, and the proportion of foreign population are also positively related to divorce rates. However, as expected, the percentage of conservative vote seems to have a negative impact.

KEYWORDS:

• Divorce rate determinants
• divorce law reform
• family dissolution
• panel data analysis

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• J12
• K36
• K49

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Rosa Ferrer and AEDE 2012 participants for valuable suggestions. Roya H. Samarghandi and Daswell Davis provided excellent research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Becker (1973, 1974).

² See among others, Allen (1998), Brinig and Buckley (1998), Friedberg (1998), Binner and Dnes (2001), Gruber (2004), Rasul (2006), Wolfers (2006) and González-Val and Marcén (2012).

³ For a recent survey of the literature, see Maclean (2010).

⁴ See Wolfers (2006).

⁵ The legal reform in 2005, commonly referred to as the ‘Express Divorce Law’ (hereafter EDL), aimed at extending the spouses’ ability to request the dissolution of marriage without the completion of many cumbersome steps. Under the new law, it is sufficient that just one of the spouses wants to file for divorce. The law requires only that 3 months have passed since the marriage had taken place, unless the interests of the children or the spouse justify the immediate suspension or dissolution of the duty to cohabitate.