Empirical essays on women and families

This dissertation examines the effects on women and families of two major policy changes made during the 1970s. Chapter 1 examines Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 finding that it led to a rapid increase in female athletic participation rates. Because Title IX required states to increase female athletic participation rates to approximately the same level as male rates, variation in the pre Title IX male participation rates provides a useful instrument for examining the effects of the change in girls' athletic participation. I find that extending athletic opportunities to high school girls generates between 0.2 and 0.3 more years of educational attainment and more than a 10-percentage point increase in the probability of being employed.; Chapters two and three examine the effects of unilateral divorce laws. The "no-fault" revolution of the 1970s ushered in a wave of divorce law reform in which states began to grant divorce on demand by either spouse. While unilateral divorce laws have only small effects on marriage-market allocation, chapter two shows that there were profound effects on distribution. Suicide rates provide a quantifiable measure of well-being, and we find that female suicide rates fell by about a fifth when states liberalized access to divorce. Domestic violence against women declined by about a third, and intimate homicide rates declined by a tenth, suggesting that these laws improved outcomes for women.; Chapter three examines the effects of unilateral divorce on the incentives to invest in marriage. Home ownership rates are used to examine the impact on joint investment in public goods within the marriage. I find a statistically significant decrease in home ownership rates of 2 to 3 percentage points. Investment in children is examined at the quantity margin. Newlyweds are found to be 7--8 percent less likely to have at least one child. A decrease in the probability of having more than three children is found for couples married 15 years or less. Investment in home-making skills has apparently decreased as hours in the labor force increases for women and decreases for men. In sum, chapters two and three show that legal institutions may have profound effects on outcomes within families.