We exploit the occurrence of postpartum depression (PPD), which has a random component according to the medical community, to estimate causal effects of a salient form of mental illness on couples’ relationship status.
…We find that this relatively prevalent mental illness reduces the probability the couples are married (by 22–24%) as well the probability that they are living together (married or cohabiting) (by 24–26%) three years after the birth of the child.
3 Responses
“22-24%,” huh? The claim seems a bit overprecise to me.
Yeah, I’m totally *not* buying this “PPD is mostly random” argument.
Correct me if I’m wrong but this does not so surprising if “marital relationship” is a predictor of PPD…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11570712