title: Legal recognition of same-sex couples and family formation.
abstract: It has long been debated how legalizing same-sex marriage would affect (different-sex) family formation. In this article, I use data on OECD member countries for the period 1980-2009 to examine the effects of the legal recognition of same-sex couples (through marriage or an alternative institution) on different-sex marriage, divorce, and extramarital births. Estimates from difference-in-difference models indicate that the introduction of same-sex marriage or of alternative institutions has no negative effects on family formation. These findings are robust to a multitude of specification checks, including the construction of counterfactuals using the synthetic control method. In addition, the country-by-country case studies provide evidence of homogeneity of the estimated effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230, Odense M, Denmark, mircea.trandafir@sam.sdu.dk.
authors.forename: Mircea
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trandafir
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001723:Birth Rate; D019049:Developed Countries; D004243:Divorce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004467:Economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*