Household income after separation Does initiator status make.pdf

Household income after separation: Does initiator status make a difference? Belinda Hewitt* The University of Queensland, Australia Anne-Rigt Poortman Utrecht University, The Netherlands * Corresponding Author Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) The University of Queensland St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4072 Australia Email: b.hewitt@uq.edu.au Acknowledgements: This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either FaHCSIA or the Melbourne Institute. This research was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council (DP0770586). This paper was presented at PAA, Dallas 2010 and we are grateful to Tom DiPrete for his insightful comments. We also thank Simon Freidin for his advice on the HILDA income measures. Abstract An influential hypothesis in divorce research is that high financial costs deter divorce. This study indirectly tests this hypothesis by examining whether people who initiate separation do better financially than those who did not initiate. The analytic sample comprised 6,424 first marriages of men and women at Wave 1 of the Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, who were followed over the subsequent 7 waves. Using a random intercept model, we found no significant differences in household income for men who initiated separation relative to men who reported a partner or jointly initiated separation. Unexpectedly, women’s household income was lower if they initiated separation than for women who did not. Several reasons are proposed for these unexpected fin