Marriage Dissolution: Property Rights or Social Ties?

Abstract

The division of property rights affects the probability of marriage dissolution. However, this effect depends on the institutional environment. Throughout a comparative institutional analysis, we use data from the 2000 censuses of Brazil and the United States. The results, following previous economic predictions indicating that the probability of divorce, both in Brazil and the United States, is negatively related to the amount of property and income, as well as to the costs of leaving the relationship. Additionally, we found that this relation is moderated by the enforcement and coercion degrees presents in each country, including divorce laws (formal institutions) and social coercion, as religious orientation (informal institutions). Specifically for social coercion, our results present that religious orientation is relevant for marital dissolution in both countries. Nonetheless, the divorce laws and formal institutional environment as a whole, reduce the probability of divorce in Brazilian jurisdiction, but do not affect the divorce occurrence among the USA couples, even when controlled for the differences between state legislation. We suggested that this difference on law’ impact is related with a greater subjectivity on North American law, if compared with the written Brazilian code.