Union Disruption in Hungary

:This article examines the impact of cultural background, human capital, and labor force participation on union disruption. To study these relationships, retrospective data are examined on the marital history of Hungarian residents taken from a national probability sample in 1992. The discrete time event history approach.is used to show the effects of different predictors on the odds of union disruption. Strong evidence was found for the positive effect of father's education and the negative effect of religious affiliation on the odds of divorce. Individual's education has no significant impact on the probability of separation. However, divorce risk is higher when the wife has greater labor force involvement, while husband's stronger labor market participation decreases the odds of divorce. Lifetime occupational mobility has a positive effect on separation indicating that any deviation from the status-relation between spouses at the time of marriage increases the risk of union disruption.