Title:      The Political Consequences of Transitions out of
Marriage: Do Women Really Become More Left-wing?

Authors:    Holger Lutz Kern

Entrydate:  2007-11-20 12:08:51

Keywords:   causal inference,matching,Great
Britain,marriage,divorce,widowhood

Abstract:   It is well known that the economic consequences of
separation, divorce, and widowhood are strikingly different for
men and women. While women on average experience a substantial
decrease in incomes and living standards after transitions out
of marriage, men often experience only small losses or even
moderate gains. Recent work in political economy suggests that
this difference in the economic consequences of marital
dissolution leads to gendered redistributive and political
preferences. After transitions out of marriage women should
become more left-wing and men should become more right-wing. So
far, however, credible causal inferences about the effects of
marital dissolution do not exist. In this paper, we use data
from the British Household Panel Survey in combination with a
matching estimator to estimate the effects of transitions out of
marriage on policy preferences and vote choice in British General
Elections. We show that marital dissolution causes a large
decline in turnout, but in contrast to previous research we find
that it has no systematic effect on policy preferences and vote
choice.

http://polmeth.wustl.edu/retrieve.php?id=723

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