Research Magazine 2022

Stable Income, Stable Family JasonM. Lindo, Krishna Regmi, and Isaac D. Swensen

Coles Working Paper Series FALL21-14, November 2021

Overview We document the effects of generous unemployment insurance (UI) on divorce and childbearing using a strategy that leverages state-level changes in maximum benefits over time and compares workers who have been laid off to those who have not. Results indicate that higher maximum benefit levels reduce the probability of divorce and increase the probability of having children for laid-off men. They had no comparable effects on laid-off women.

44 | Working Papers

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