The Long‐Term Effects of Legalizing Divorce on Children

We estimate the effect of divorce legalization on the long‐term well‐being of children, by exploiting the different timing of divorce legalization across Europe. We compare the adult outcomes of cohorts raised when divorce was banned with those of cohorts raised after divorce was legalized in the same country. We also have ‘control’ countries where all cohorts were exposed (or not exposed) to legal divorce as children. We find that women who grew up under legal divorce have lower earnings and income and worse health as adults compared with women who grew up under illegal divorce. These negative effects are not found for men.     

Child care voucher and labour market behaviour: experimental evidence from Finland

This article provides experimental estimates of the impact of a voucher for private care on labour force participation and use of private and public child care within the Nordic system of universal provision of public care. In a market that was providing high-quality, low-cost public child care, a voucher is nevertheless found to have a significant, positive effect for the use of private child care with zero effects on either use of public care or labour force participation. The use of private increased by five percentage points in the whole country and by five to seven percentage points in areas that suffer from excess demand for child care as a result of the introduction of the private child care voucher.     

Chris Willett (Ed.): Public Sector Reform and the Citizen's Charter. London: Blackstone Press, 1996.

Journal of Consumer Policy -     

Group Action in the Baltic States

The article is based on a study which aimed at examining the existence and use of group actions in consumer issues in the Baltic states. It was part of a larger research project in which the same questions were studied in all Central and Eastern European countries. Besides group actions in courts, administrative group actions were also studied.A starting point for the study was an overview of substantive consumer protection legislation in the Baltic states. In spite of the fact that there has been a rapid development in this field during recent years, the main finding was that many substantive law elements of consumers' collective interests, which in the EU Member States are often protected by different kinds of group actions, are as yet not regulated at all in the Baltic states or not regulated in a sufficiently detailed way in the Baltic states.The study showed that several kinds of group action exist in these countries. Firstly, there are administrative group actions for injunction. They are applied mainly in cases concerning product information, product safety, and unfair competition. Secondly, a group action by a consumer organisation for injunction in a court is, in principle, possible in Estonia and Lithuania, but not in Latvia. So far, no case law exists, however. A genuine group action for compensation is not possible in the Baltic countries, but a consumer organization may represent an individual consumer or a specified group of consumers in a court and may claim compensation on their behalf. The study showed that administrative group actions are a functioning part of the present consumer protection system in these countries, whereas court actions so far exist only on paper. It also showed that in the Baltic states, procedural means are in some matters better developed than substantive consumer law, whereas in many western countries, the exact opposite is the case. The article concludes with some recommendations as to how the Baltic states could develop their consumer protection legislation.     

The effect of divorce laws on divorce rates in Europe

We analyze the effect on divorce rates of the legal reforms leading to “easier divorce” that took place in Europe during the last four decades. We construct a 54-year-long panel and exploit the different timing and nature of the reforms in divorce laws across countries. The reforms range from countries that legalized divorce to the introduction of no-fault grounds and unilateral divorce. We estimate that the introduction of no-fault, unilateral divorce increased the divorce rate by about 0.6, a sizeable effect given the average rate of 2 divorces per 1000 people in 2002.     

The Baltic Model for the Settlement of Individual Consumer Disputes

The aim of this study is to assess the possibilities consumers in the Baltic countries have to fulfil their rights in individual consumer disputes by using different forms of alternative dispute resolution. Special attention will be paid to the relation between the existing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) systems and the European Commission's Recommendation 1998 on ADR. The main finding is that in all three countries individual disputes are settled by the same consumer authorities which are also protecting consumers' collective interests. The system resembles in many respects the Nordic model but there are some significant differences. These differences give good reason to speak about the "Baltic model," which differs from all systems existing in the EC Member States. The most remarkable difference is the right to impose administrative sanctions if a trader refuses to comply with a decision which a consumer authority has made with respect to an individual consumer dispute. The basic structure of the Baltic model does not clash with the principles of the EC Recommendation on ADR adopted in 1998. On the contrary, in practice the Baltic model gives better guarantees for consumer access to justice in individual disputes than many systems used in the Member States.     

Multiple sclerosis patients as counsellors and evaluators of rehabilitation

The article is concerned with multiple sclerosis (MS) patients’ experiences of rehabilitation services. Customers choose and assess the rehabilitation services they want. In the spring of 1999, group interview data were collected as part of an evaluation study of outpatient activities organized by the Finnish MS Society. Illness experience, changes in functional capacity and experience of health care services provided by both the public and voluntary sectors were all shown to have an effect on how customers chose services. When customers guide their own rehabilitation, their wishes and decisions concerning rehabilitation should be heard and respected. This indicates that customers make choices taking account of the opportunities provided by society.