NIDI Scriptieprijs 2011 op Demografiedag voor Tali Spiegel

Op de Nederlandse Demografiedag op 9 november heeft Tali Spiegel (ICS RUG promovenda) de NIDI Scriptieprijs 2011 gewonnen voor haar master scriptie The Role of the Availability of Attractive Alternative Partners in Union Dissolution in the Netherlands. De Demografiedag wordt georganiseerd door de Nederlandse Vereniging voor Demografie (NVD).

In this thesis we answer the following questions: What is the effect of the availability of attractive alternative partners on the likelihood of union dissolution? And does the effect differ for cohabiting and married couples? We make use of the Social Statistical Database (SSB) provided by Statistics Netherlands, which is an integrated, longitudinal database of numerous registers and surveys. These data consist of information about the sex composition in each partner s marriage market namely: the neighborhood and the workplace. Event History models are used in order to make predictions about the risk that the availability of attractive alternative partners poses on couples likelihood of union dissolution. We find results suggesting that the availability of attractive alternative partners does increase the likelihood of union dissolution, however not linearly. Additionally we find little support that this effect is larger for cohabiting than married couples.