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Are happiness and productivity lower among young people with newly-divorced parents? An experimental and econometric approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Eugenio Proto ,
Daniel Sgroi  and
Andrew J. Oswald
Eugenio Proto*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
Daniel Sgroi
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
Andrew J. Oswald
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

High rates of divorce in western society have prompted much research on the repercussions for well-being and the economy. Yet little is known about the important topic of whether parental divorce has deleterious consequences upon adult children. By combining experimental and econometric survey-based evidence, this study attempts to provide an answer. Under controlled conditions, it measures university students’ subjective well-being and productivity (in a standardized laboratory task). It finds no evidence that either of these is negatively associated with recent parental divorce. If anything, happiness and productivity appear to be slightly greater, particularly among males, if their parents have divorced. Using longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey—to control for so-called fixed effects—we then cross-check this result, and confirm the same finding, on various random samples of young British adults.

Keywords

Labor productivityDivorceMental healthWell-beingHappinessExperimental economics

JEL classification

C91: Laboratory, Individual Behavior J24: Human Capital • Skills • Occupational Choice • Labor Productivity
Type
Original Paper
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Economic Science Association

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Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-011-9285-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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