From Maternal Preference to Joint Custody: The Impact of Changes in Custody Law on Child Educational Attainment

Abstract

This article studies the effect of the regime shift to joint custody in custody dispute adjudication in the United States during the 1980s using census data. Relying on cross state and year variation in the timing of adoption, I found the probability of attaining grade 12 or higher at age 18 among children of divorced or separated families to be higher in adoption states, but there was a fall in the same probability among intact families. The results are robust to alternate specification, use of alternative data set, and examination of compositional effects. JEL Classification: J12; J13; K36

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