In this study we pose two broad questions: what are the characteristics ofthe currently divorced; and who divorces? Divorce is used as an inclusiveterm to include separations from marriages and from cohabiting unions.In the first part data from the Family Resources Survey is used to identifythe...

This paper analyzes how preferences for a non-economic characteristic, such as caste, canaffect equilibrium patterns of matching in the marriage market, and empirically evaluates thisin the context of arranged marriages among middle-class Indians. We develop a model thatdemonstrates how the...

This paper provides a first microeconomic foundation for the institution of marriage. Based on a model of reproduction, mating, and parental investment in children, we argue that marriage serves the purpose of attenuating the risk of mating market failure that arises from incomplete information...

This paper analyzes the causal relationships between marriage and subjective well-beingin a longitudinal data set spanning 17 years. We find evidence that happier singles opt more likelyfor marriage and that there are large differences in the benefits from marriage between couples.Potential, as...

This article examines the role of family and the state in relation to theliving standards of the elderly in East Asia. It tries to test whetherfamilial arrangement according to Confucian ethics, which are still takenseriously in East Asia, secures the minimum standards of living for theelderly....

This paper uses microdata from the United States, Britain, and Japan toexamine the effects of family leave coverage on women's employment afterchildbirth. Our three sample countries provide a range of family leavepolicy regimes. The United States had no national family leave legislationprior to...

East Enders tells the story of a hundred families who live in two of the lowestincome areas in the East End of London, Hackney and Newham. The East Endhas the biggest concentration of poverty in the capital. It lies at the heart of theThames Gateway, London’s major growth area.Nearly half the...

Since the mid-1990s the term and phenomenon of “social exclusion” has attractedmuch academic attention in the UK, and since 1997 has been an explicit focus ofgovernment policy. In a new book, CASE members examine the debate around themeaning of the term, and the extent and nature of problems...

Helen Bowman reports on interviews with 100 families in two low-income cityneighbourhoods, one in Sheffield and one in Leeds. Kirkside East is a large,mainly white, council estate in Leeds. The Valley is a mixed tenure, mixedincome, ethnically diverse area, stretching out of Sheffield city...

Katharine Mumford reports on her first round of interviews with 100 familiesliving in two East London neighbourhoods. CASE’s qualitative, longitudinalstudy in low income areas seeks to understand area change from theperspective of families, and to uncover the significance of area conditions...