Essays on the Economics of the Family in Mexico

This thesis consists of three essays on the economics of the family. Empirical evidence is provided using applied microeconometrics techniques to analyse from different perspectives the marriage market in Mexico. The first chapter studies the impact of education on marriage dissolution exploiting a change in the length of compulsory education in Mexico as an instrument for education. Results demonstrate that the relationship between education and divorce is not causal and suggest that although higher levels of education are an undeniable trait observed in non-broken marriages, it is not education by itself one of the mechanisms leading to better marriage outcomes. The second chapter investigates the effect of changes in the divorce legislation on divorce rates in Mexico, given the remarkable growth of divorce rates over the past few decades in the country, but especially after the introduction of unilateral divorce. Following a difference-in-differences methodology and using panel state-level data, it is observed that unilateral divorce increases the number of divorces. Moreover, since unilateral divorce has been implemented gradually in the country, the rising trend in divorce rates is expected to continue over the coming years. The third chapter analyses the effect of domestic violence on women’s earnings, when the levels and the frequency of abuse are considered. An index for domestic violence is designed to capture the variation observed, challenging the traditional use of a dichotomous variable within this context. In addition, to conduct a causal analysis, an instrument indicating the husband’s random irritability is created. Findings show that women exposed to higher levels of domestic violence, economic, emotional or physical, struggle with lower salaries. Physical violence is the type of abuse with the largest negative incidence on earnings, followed by economic and emotional violence, respectively.