In the popular press and among policymakers the effect of no-fault divorce laws on divorce rates remains an issue (see e.g., New York Times, 23 July 1991). In my 1986 article in this Review, I show that the adoption of one form of no-fault divorceunilateral divorce-does not lead to a significant increase in divorce rates.' The theoretical model that is consistent with this empirical evidence would imply that the new law does not decrease the costs of divorce. It merely redefines which party has the right to terminate the marriage.
This paper compares lifecycle data from a retrospective marital history with those derived for the same individuals from panel information, utilizing data from the Young Women's cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Work Experience (NLS) which was initiated in 1968. The results indicate that when a marital event is reported in both sources there is substantial agreement about the date of the event. The errors are systematic and seem to relate to factors that increase the difficulty of recall in retrospective histories. The two data sources seem to do equally well in estimating hazard rate models of first marriage and give qualitatively similar results for hazard rate models of divorce and remarriage.
This article describes the economic approach to analyzing family behavior pioneered by Becker, focusing on two areas: household production and altruism. The household production model addresses the important question of how costs, technological changes, and social changes affect the ways in which families rear children and, in turn, reflect the importance of children in our society. Becker's work on altruism explores the nature of parent-parent and parent-child relationships and how these relationships affect resource allocation within the family. Modeling altruism also provides insights into how parent's behavior toward their children is affected by government policies.
We use data from three cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience and from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to study the effect of survey attrition on estimates of statistical models of schooling choices. We estimate regressions using data on people who always respond to the surveys (stayers) and on people who miss some surveys (attritors) and test whether the same statistical model describes the behavior of stayers and attritors. In general (with a few exceptions) we find that attrition either has no effect on the regression estimates or only affects the estimates of the intercept (and sometimes the coefficients of birth year dummies) and does not affect estimates of family background slope coefficients.
Contents: Introduction. Part I: The Landscape of Child Care in the Post-Welfare Reform Era. L. Giannarelli, F.L. Sonenstein, M.W. Stagner, Child-Care Arrangements and Help for Low-Income Families With Young Children: Evidence From the National Survey of America's Families. C. Ross, G. Kirby, Welfare-to-Work Transitions for Parents of Infants: Employment and Child-Care Policy Implementation in Eight Communities. A.D. Witte, M. Queralt, Infant and Toddler Care After Welfare Reform: A Cross-State Comparison. Part II: Government Policies and the Nature of Child Care. L.A. Gennetian, D.A. Crosby, A.C. Huston, Welfare and Child-Care Policy Effects on Very Young Children's Child-Care Experiences. C.K.C. Ficano, H.E. Peters, Work, Welfare, and Child-Care Choices Among Low-Income Women: Does Policy Matter? J. Kimmel, L.M. Powell, Nonstandard Work and Child-Care Choices: Implications for Welfare Reform. R.L. Coley, C.P. Li-Grining, P.L. Chase-Landsdale, Low-Income Families' Child Care Experiences: Meeting the Needs of Children and Families. Part III: Government Subsidies and the Nature of Child Care. M.K. Meyers, L.R. Peck, E.E. Davis, A. Collins, J.L. Kreader, A. Georges, R. Weber, D. Schexnayder, D. Schroeder, J.A. Olson, The Dynamics of Child-Care Subsidy Use: A Collaborative Study of Five States. G. Adams, K. Snyder, and Analysis Team, Child-Care Subsidies and Low-Income Parents-Policies and Practices that Affect Access and Retention. S.K. Danziger, E.O. Ananat, K.G. Browning, Child-Care Subsidies and the Transition From Welfare to Work. Part IV: Implications and Future Directions. D. Phillips, Child Care as Risk or Protection in the Context of Welfare Reform. M. Burchinal, Child-Care
This paper examines the effect of demographic cycles on schooling choices and the timing of school completion. Utilizing data from the [U.S.] National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience and from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics we find that men and women born during the upswing of a demographic cycle obtain more schooling and take longer to finish a year of schooling than comparable individuals born during the downswing of a demographic cycle. The patterns that we document are more complex than would be predicted by any of the theoretical models of educational responses to demographic cycles that have been presented in the literature. (EXCERPT)
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