No-Fault Laws and At-Fault People

Authors

Margaret F. Brinig, Notre Dame Law SchoolFollow
F. H. BuckleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1998

Publication Information

18 Int'l Rev. of L. & Econ. 325 (1998)

Abstract

Absent transaction costs, the Coase Theorem suggests that divorce reform would work no change in the frequency of divorce but perhaps would alter the distribution of marital wealth. However, divorce does involve substantial process costs, which no-fault lowered. This paper explores the question of what happened to state divorce rates because of the legal changes wrought by the family law revolution that began in the 1970s, isolating the effect of the legal variable from other demographic and social factors that might also explain the variation in divorce rates across states and across time.

Comments

Reprinted with permission of International Review of Law and Economics.

Recommended Citation

Margaret F. Brinig & F. H. Buckley, No-Fault Laws and At-Fault People, 18 Int'l Rev. of L. & Econ. 325 (1998).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/680