ABSTRACT
The introduction of no-fault divorce, in turn, has had feedback effects that have made a major contribution to the changes. The change in the financial settlements in no-fault divorce states can be illustrated by reviewing the situation in California. No-fault divorce appears thus to have been partly a response to the demand for simpler procedures for dissolving marriages, but it also may have had a feedback effect on the divorce rate by reducing the transaction costs incurred by the parties to a divorce. The higher wages and broader employment opportunities available to women had both a direct and an indirect effect on gains from marriage. Rapid changes in society in the postwar period also affected the predictability of the outcomes that people experienced during marriage. Marriage was often the reason that women concluded their education. Goodwill was expanded to professionals to attempt to correct for the financial problems faced by older divorced women under the existing divorce and property laws.
