Partners not for life? On the determinants of marriage dissolution in Indonesia

Abstract

While there have been numerous studies exploring the determinants of divorce in social science, economic studies on such marriage dissolution are scarce. Our study aims to examine the cause of divorce in Indonesia, exploring the socio-economic and demographic determinants including risk preference as to why couples choose whether to divorce or stay married. This study utilizes the data on married men and women from Indonesian Family Life Survey 2007 and 2014. In relation to husband-wife working composition, we find a very specific condition leading to marriage dissolution: when the wife is the only working, the main source of income of the family. The result indicates that there is a clash between the traditional family structures, especially a man as the househusband and the demographic change in the labor market for the sustainability of marriage. Furthermore, variables such as age, whether the marriage is the first marriage or not, and religiosity show considerable predictive validities.