Question:
In the United States in the late twentieth century, no-fault divorce laws became the norm in the states (divorce being a matter for states, not the federal government, to regulate). Ignoring for the sake of this problem all the other factors that influence the marriage decision and that have changed during the same time period, what does the move to no-fault divorce do to the implicit (legal) price of divorce? What would be your prediction about the effect of this change in the implicit price of divorce on the quality and quantity of marriages and divorces? If, in the next decade, the states were to repudiate the experiment in no-fault divorce and return to the old regime, would you predict a change in the quality and quantity of marriages and divorces?