NBER Working Papers · 2026 · Stella Canessa、Gordon B. Dahl、Anna Hasselqvist、Costas Meghir、Susan Niknami、Mårten Palme
中文摘要
离婚重塑了家庭生活，但对于其中影响最为深远的特征之一——子女监护权的分配——人们仍知之甚少。我们将瑞典丰富的行政数据与新收集的、时间跨度超过25年的法院监护权裁决记录相关联，研究共同监护相对于单独监护对父母双方及子女的影响。为回应选择性偏误方面的顾虑，我们利用了监护权纠纷随机分配给法官这一安排，而这些法官判予共同监护的倾向存在很大差异。对父亲而言，共同监护大幅提高了收入，并改善了心理健康；这一结果与持续的父职参与增强劳动力市场依附程度、增进心理福祉的解释相一致。相比之下，对母亲而言，未发现可测得的劳动力市场或心理健康效应。对子女而言，共同监护提高了标准化考试成绩和学校质量，但未影响心理健康结果。共同监护提高了父亲再婚的可能性，使分居父母在地理上更为接近，且对针对任一方的亲密伴侣暴力指控没有影响。这些发现为长期以来围绕子女监护权在塑造离婚后家庭生活中所起作用的争论提供了参考。
Abstract
Divorce reshapes family life, yet little is known about one of its most consequential features: the allocation of child custody. We study the impact of joint versus sole custody on both parents and children using rich administrative data from Sweden linked to over 25 years of newly-collected court custody rulings. To address selection concerns, we exploit random assignment of custody disputes to judges who differ sharply in their propensity to grant joint custody. For fathers, joint custody substantially raises earnings and improves mental health, consistent with sustained paternal involvement enhancing labor market attachment and psychological well-being. In contrast, there are no measurable labor market or mental health effects for mothers. Turning to children, joint custody increases standardized test scores and school quality without affecting mental health outcomes. Joint custody increases fathers’ chances of remarriage, keeps separated parents in closer geographic proximity, and has no effect on intimate partner violence allegations against either partner. These findings inform longstanding debates over the role of child custody in shaping post-divorce family life.