Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The literature on marital relations that focuses on the impact of household income on the odds of divorce, generally points out to a negative effect, suggesting that the odds of divorce decrease with household income. However, little is known about its effect when embedded in the context of an economic crisis. The scarce evidence that exist about this relationship is inconclusive, pointing to either a negative or a positive effect of household income on divorce. In light of the recent and ongoing economic crisis in Europe, this paper contributes to the literature on the economic determinants of divorce, by examining the effect of household income on the odds of divorce occurrence, before and after the onset of the European economic crisis, in early 2010. This relation is examined using data from EU-SILC, for the period 2003-2013 and for the countries that were hit the most by the European economic crisis, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece. Using logistic regression to examine the relationship of interest, we came to conclusions that contradict previous studies. Our results suggest that the effect of household income on divorce is specifically mediated by other factors, such as the educational level of the partners, the employment status of women and home ownership. In addition, the results show that the effect of household income on divorce occurrence does not differ before and after the advent of the economic crisis.