Paperback: 203 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (March 4, 2002)
Language: English
Published by the press syndicate of the university of CambridgeWhat sort of contract is marriage? What does it offer the parties? What are the difficulties of enforcement, and the result of failed effective enforcement? This book takes an economic approach to marriage and divorce, considering the key role of 'incentives' in family law: it highlights the possible adverse consequences emanating from faulty legal design, while demonstrating that good family law should provide incentives for consistent and honest behavior. Economists, specialists in the economic analysis of law, and academic lawyers discuss recent advances in specialist work on marriage, cohabitation, and divorce. Chapters are grouped around four topics: the contractual perspectives on marriage commitment; the regulatory framework surrounding divorce; bargaining and commitment issues relating to marriage and near-marriage arrangements; and finally empirical work, which focuses on the impact of more liberal divorce laws. This important new study will be of considerable interest to lawyers, policy-makers and economists concerned with family law.Contents
Introduction
Antony W. Dnes And Robert Rowthorn
Marriage: the long-term contract
Lloyd R. Cohen
Marital commitment and the legal regulation of divorce
Elizabeth S. Scott
Mutual consent divorce
Allen M. Parkman
An economic approach to adultery law
Eric Rasmusen
Louisiana’s covenant marriage law: recapturing the meaning of marriage for the sake of the children
Katherine Shaw Spaht
Cohabitation and marriage
Antony W. Dnes
Marriage as a signal
Robert Rowthorn
For better or for worse? Is bargaining in marriage and divorce efficient?
Martin Zelder
Weak men and disorderly women: divorce and the division of labor
Steven L. Nock And Margaret F. Brinig
The impact of legal reforms on marriage and divorce
Douglas W. Allen
European divorce laws, divorce rates, and their consequences
Ian SmithISBN 0-511-02953-5 eBook (Adobe Reader)
ISBN 0-521-80933-9 hardback
ISBN 0-521-00632-5 paperback
