Effect of divorce law on marriages

George Debono (July 1) raises four issues with respect to my column of June 25.

First, he claims I did not distinguish between marital breakdown and the legal process that formalises it. But I did, using clunky terms like "partnership dissolution" and "marital disruption" to avoid having terms like "divorce" or "separation" being misunderstood.

Second, he says the article was detached from the reality of how adults in failed marriages reason. But I never remotely made that my subject. I addressed a completely different issue: what legislators ought to consider.

Third, Dr Debono queries my statement: "...the tested evidence is clear: divorce laws contribute to higher rates of marital breakdown; in Europe, by roughly 20 per cent between 1960-2002, according to one study".

It is true that statistics usually establish only correlations, not causal links - a point my own column has sometimes made in reaction to certain anti-divorce campaigners. However, for Europe, the link between divorce laws and (formal) divorce/separation rates can be tested quasi-experimentally because of the different timing of divorce-law reform across several national jurisdictions.

Such testing, for 18 countries over a 54-year period has been undertaken by two researchers, Libertad Gonzalez and Tarja Viitanen. My column alluded to their study, The Effect Of Divorce Laws On Divorce Rates In Europe, published last year in the European Economic Review. (For readers who would like more nuanced information on method and results, a free 2006 version is available online: http://ftp.iza.org/dp2023.pdf .)

If anyone finds a fatal flaw, I would be relieved. Until then, this peer-reviewed result (which confirms earlier, independent claims) must be taken to stand.

Fourth, Dr Debono says that I cited this study as part of an argument against divorce. I made no such argument. I argued against cant and superficiality.