Thomas Leopold

Why do lower educated people separate more often? Life strains and the gradient in union dissolution

This study finds that lower educated couples are more likely to separate than their better educated peers, because they experience strain across multiple aspects of their life, including work, finance, … Read more

Family size and economic wellbeing following divorce: The United States in comparative perspective

Do childless women fare better economically than mothers after divorce? And do mothers with many children suffer more than those with small families? This study compares data from a panel … Read more

The Comparative Panel File: Harmonized Household Panel Surveys from Seven Countries

Authors: Konrad Turek, Matthijs Kalmijn, Thomas Leopold,
Issue: 2021

The Comparative Panel File (CPF) harmonizes the world’s largest and longest-running household panel surveys from seven countries: Australia (HILDA), Germany (SOEP), United Kingdom (BHPS and UKHLS), South Korea (KLIPS), Russia … Read more

A New Look at the Separation Surge in Europe: Contrasting Adult and Child Perspectives

This paper looks at recent increases in relationship dissolution across eight European countries. It finds the phenomenon is more prevalent among childless and cohabiting couples as well as among those … Read more

Sibling influence on family formation: A study of social interaction effects on fertility, marriage, and divorce 

This study looked at whether getting married, having children or getting divorced is likely to influence a sibling to do the same. The analysis on more than 4,000 individuals living … Read more

Trajectories of Life Satisfaction Before, Upon, and After Divorce: Evidence From a New Matching Approach

The new DIAL working paper by Scheppingen and Leopold Trajectories of Life Satisfaction Before, Upon, and After Divorce: Evidence from a New Matching Approach analyses how divorce influences life satisfaction. … Read more

Divorce and Diverging Poverty Rates: A Risk‐and‐Vulnerability Approach

This study offers a new approach to analyzing life course inequalities and applies it to the link between divorce and poverty. Previous research has suggested that divorce drives cumulative inequality … Read more

Family, Firms, and Fertility: A Study of Social Interaction Effects

This research shows that when an individual has a baby can be directly linked to the fertility decisions not only of their closest family and colleagues but of wider networks. … Read more

Family Size and the Persistency of Poverty following Divorce: The United States in Comparative Perspective

This paper assesses how the short- and medium-term economic consequences of divorce on women vary by family size. It finds, surprisingly, that having children contributes to a woman’s economic recovery … Read more