@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp4755, author={Proto, Eugenio and Sgroi, Daniel and Oswald, Andrew J.}, title={Are Happiness and Productivity Lower among University Students with Newly-Divorced Parents? An Experimental Approach}, year={2010}, month={Feb}, institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)}, address={Bonn}, type={IZA Discussion Paper}, number={4755}, url={https://www.iza.org/publications/dp4755}, abstract={We live in a high-divorce age. It is now common for university faculty to have students who are touched by a recent divorce. It is likely that parents themselves worry about effects on their children. Yet there has been almost no formal research into the important issue of how recent parental-divorce affects students at university. This paper designs such a study. In it, to avoid 'priming', we measure students' happiness with life before we inquire into their family background. We also measure student achievement in a randomized-trial productivity task. Our results seem both of scientific interest and of potential interest to parents. This study finds no evidence that students suffer after parental divorce}, keywords={divorce;experimental economics;happiness;well-being;labor productivity}, }