TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Broadway, Barbara
AU  - Kalb, Guyonne
        TI  - The Effect of Separation on Poverty and Employment
        PY  - 2025/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18343
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18343
        AB  - Using 2001–2021 HILDA survey data, this paper estimates how separation or divorce affects poverty and employment trajectories over five years after the event. A difference-in-differences approach compares separated individuals with couples who stayed together, accounting for recent and long-term labour market history prior to separation. Women with preschool children face a 19.9 percentage point higher poverty risk in the first year, which fades within three years. Women with older or no children experience smaller but longer-lasting poverty increases. Pre-separation employment strongly moderates effects: non-employed women face much higher poverty risks than employed women who have similar poverty risks to men. Men’s poverty impacts are smaller and shorter-lived. Separation barely changes women’s employment but slightly reduces men’s employment, especially those with preschool children.
        KW  - poverty
KW  - relationship breakdown
KW  - economic autonomy
        ER  -