| This dissertation is comprised of three essays on topics in the economics of education and family. In Chapter 1, "The Effects of Parental Involvement on Student Achievements: A Fixed Effects Approach", I measure the effect of changes in parental involvement on changes in schooling outcomes between 8th and 12th grade using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. The fixed effects estimates suggest that some types of parental involvement, particularly those that involve parent-child discussion have a positive effect on student outcomes, ranging from 0.39-0.96 and 0.43-1.18 percentage point increases in math and reading test scores, respectively.;Chapter 2, "Til Laws Do Us Part? The Impact of Changing Divorce Laws on Divorce Rates in Mexico" (with Trinidad Beleche), investigates the relationship between the rising rate of marital dissolution and recently liberalized divorce laws in Mexico. Specifically, the law changes considered include the adoption of domestic violence, separation, and incompatibility as legal grounds for divorce, and the establishment of 'administrative' divorce filing. Using a panel of state level divorce rates, the difference-in-differences estimates suggest that liberalization of the divorce laws did not have a statistically significant effect on aggregate divorce rates between 1993 and 2005.;In order to gain additional insight into the consequences of divorce reforms on the quality of matches in Mexico, I analyze individual marriage and divorce certificate data in Chapter 3, "The Effect of Divorce Laws on the Duration of Marriage in Mexico". Specifically, I estimate the effect on marital duration of marrying after liberal divorce provisions are adopted using a Cox proportional hazard model as my main empirical technique. I find evidence that couples marrying under the presence of any of the four divorce provisions are more likely to divorce and do so more quickly compared to couples marrying in states without any such provisions. |
