MEASURING THE IMPACT OF SINGAPORE'S DIVORCE INTERVENTION POLICIES.

Abstract

The Syariah Court in Singapore has been unique in implementing a mandatory counselling program for divorcing couples in 2004. While this seems paternalistic, it provides economists with a unique opportunity to study the effect of a divorce-intervention policy. This thesis investigates the impact of the Marriage Counselling Programme (MCP), a mandatory program for all Muslim couples seeking a divorce, on divorce rates and other family-related outcomes. To identify the causal effects of the program, I adopt a difference-in-differences approach that exploits time-series variation in program adoption and civil marriages as a control group. The results indicate that the implementation of the MCP leads to a significant and sustained decrease in Muslim divorce rates. The lack of pre-trends supports a causal interpretation of the findings. There is a lack of discernible effect on other margins such as marriage and fertility.