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Consequences of Divorce in Germany

  • This cumulative dissertation investigates the economic consequences of divorce in Germany. It includes a general introduction (Chapter 1), three research papers (Chapters 2, 3 and 4) and one article that validates the data quality (Chapter 5). The analysis is based on register data from the statutory German pension fund. The data provide not only large sample sizes but also detailed earnings, employment and marital histories of the divorcees. On the basis of these data, the (causal) effects of divorce on employment, health and earnings are examined by relying on the propensity score framework. However, because propensity scores are sensible to the estimation strategy and the observed covariates, robustness checks with alternative estimation frameworks are also performed. Finally, to address the issue of hidden bias, estimated results are also challenged by sensitivity analyses. The results may be summarised as follows: Among other strategies, women can cope with economic strain connected with divorce by increasing their labor supply and/or by earning higher incomes (compared to their married counterparts). While the income effect is negligible, the employment effect is very pronounced. I find particularly strong negative employment effects with respect to marginal employment and strong positive effects with respect to regular employment. Furthermore, the lower the labour market attachment before separation, the more pronounced the employment effect. Aside from labour market outcomes, health (measured in days of work disability) also declined considerably around the time of separation. However, I demonstrate that a naïve descriptive investigation would overestimate the effect of divorce on health because there is substantial selection into divorce. Thus, poor health is not only a cause of divorce but also a pathway to divorce. Lastly, the data set allowed me to link former couples and examine their employment and earning trajectories across divorce. Results indicate that women’s earnings increased in the years around divorce, whereas their ex-partner’s earnings declined. Nevertheless, huge gender differences persist.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Doctoral Thesis
Language:English
Author(s):Daniel Brüggmann
Advisor:Michaela Kreyenfeld, Johannes Giesecke, Dimitri Mortelmans
Hertie Collections (Serial Number):Dissertations submitted to the Hertie School (07/2023)
Publication year:2023
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
Granting Institution:Hertie School
Thesis date:2021/12/13
Number pages:132
DOI:https://doi.org/10.48462/opus4-5061
Release Date:2023/08/31
Notes:
Parts of the dissertation have been published:

Chapter 2: Women’s employment, income and divorce in West Germany: A causal approach.
The version of record of this article, first published in Journal for Labour Market Research, is available online at Publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12651-020-00270-0

Brüggmann, D. (2020). Women’s employment, income and divorce in West Germany: A causal approach. Journal for Labour Market Research, 54(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12651-020-00270-0

Chapter 3: Earnings Trajectories after Divorce: The Legacies of the Earner Model during Marriage.
The version of record of this article, first published in Population Research and Policy Review, is available online at Publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-023-09756-4 

Brüggmann, D., & Kreyenfeld, M. (2023). Earnings Trajectories After Divorce: The Legacies of the Earner Model During Marriage. Population Research and Policy Review, 42(2), 23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-023-09756-4

Chapter 4: Work disability and divorce.
Published in:
Brüggmann, D. (2020). Work Disability and Divorce. In M. Kreyenfeld & H. Trappe (Eds.), Parental Life Courses after Separation and Divorce in Europe (pp. 289–308). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44575-1_14

Chapter 5: Statutory Pension Insurance Accounts and divorce: A new scientific use file.
The final publication is available at www.degruyter.com.
Keck, W., Radenacker, A., Brüggmann, D., Kreyenfeld, M., & Mika, T. (2020). Statutory Pension Insurance Accounts and Divorce: A New Scientific Use File. Jahrbücher Für Nationalökonomie Und Statistik, 240(6), 825–835. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2019-0064
Notes:
Shelf mark: 2023D007 + 2023D007+1
Hertie School Research:Publications PhD Researchers
Licence of document (German):Creative Commons - CC BY - 4.0 International
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