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Sentences of sadness
Even though divorce rates are declining over all, as far back as 1977 the economist Gary Becker showed that couples experiencing any unexpected, drastic rise in net worth are at risk of divorce. (The same holds true for a drastic decline in net worth.)
Here is the article, which focuses on real estate. The pointer is from Daniel Akst.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on August 14, 2007 at 03:38 PM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
Or, perhaps, they enjoy the opportunity to divorce.
Posted by: Tony at Aug 14, 2007 4:10:41 PM
It needen't be a sad sentence. Imagine a partner unhappy in the marriage, but dependent on the spouse for financial support - the change in net worth can end a bad marriage. Not exactly happy perhaps, but a smaller amount of sad.
Posted by: Steve L at Aug 14, 2007 4:41:31 PM
That is sad. Time to dust off the old foot-binders.
Posted by: josh at Aug 14, 2007 4:55:15 PM
There are many unhappy marriages that will break up if one of the partners gains enough wealth. Are you really surprised to hear that?
Posted by: Robin Hanson at Aug 14, 2007 5:32:18 PM
The famous musical advice:
You'd better keep her,
You'll find it's cheaper,
Than makin whoopee
can be more readily ignored by the wealthy.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov at Aug 14, 2007 6:14:49 PM
Plenty of anecdotes, but not one single statistic in the whole article. What a disgrace.
Posted by: Andres at Aug 15, 2007 12:05:37 AM
Ex-husband: Do you know why is divorce so expensive?
Economist: Because the consumer surplus is largely captured by lawyers and ex-spouses, resulting in high fixed and recurring transaction costs?
Ex-husband: Oh yeah, that too. I was going to say "because it's worth it".
Posted by: mobile at Aug 15, 2007 12:25:56 PM
Just another consequence of the outrageous rent seeking opportunities created by the extra-constitutional family law industry.
Posted by: Rob at Aug 16, 2007 2:01:55 PM
I agree that the "negative" finding can actually be quite a liberating one. However, I have a suspicion that people see it as negative because they don't like having the fact that a lot of marriages persist for logistical reasons be as salient as this finding makes it.
Posted by: Jodi Beggs at Aug 16, 2007 5:25:22 PM
I agree that the "negative" finding can actually be quite a liberating one. However, I have a suspicion that people see it as negative because they don't like having the fact that a lot of marriages persist for logistical reasons be as salient as this finding makes it.
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