TY  - JOUR
AU  - Greenwood, Jeremy
AU  - Guner, Nezih
TI  - Marriage and Divorce since World War II: Analyzing the Role of Technological Progress on the Formation of Households
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10772
PY  - 2004
Y2  - September 2004
DO  - 10.3386/w10772
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10772
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10772.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jeremy Greenwood
University of Pennsylvania
Nezih Guner
CEMFI
Casado del Alisal 5
28014 Madrid
Spain
E-Mail: nezih.guner@cemfi.es
M1  - published as Jeremy Greenwood, Nezih Guner. "Marriage and Divorce since World War II: Analyzing the Role of Technological Progress on the Formation of Households," in Daron Acemoglu, Kenneth Rogoff and Michael Woodford, editors, "NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2008, Volume 23" University of Chicago Press (2009)

AB  - Since World War II there has been: (i) a rise in the fraction of time that married households allocate to market work, (ii) an increase in the rate of divorce, and (iii) a decline in the rate of marriage. What can explain this? It is argued here that technological progress in the household sector has saved on the need for labor at home. This makes it more feasible for singles to maintain their own home, and for married women to work. To address this question, a search model of marriage and divorce is developed. Household production benefits from labor-saving technological progress.
ER  -