1、9300 英文单词， 5.3 万英文字符 ，中文 1.6 万字 文献出处： Smith I. The law and economics of marriage contractsJ. Journal of economic surveys, 2003, 17(2): 201-225. THE LAW AND ECONOMICS OF MARRIAGE CONTRACTS Ian Smith Abstract Growth in property ownership has raised the stakes in the distribution of financial assets on
2、 divorce. Given high risks of marital failure, this has stimulated the demand for private ordering through enforceable marriage con- tracts. This paper surveys the existing law and economics literature and legal practice to consider the state of knowledge on the economic theory, scope and limits of
3、written nuptial agreements. Keywords: Marriage Contracts; Prenuptial Agreements; Marital Property 1. Introduction While there is much scholarly investigation of the financial consequences of marital breakdown,1 discussion of the private regulation of such outcomes using marriage contracts is less sy
4、stematic. The topic of marital contracting to alter the divorce entitlements of the parties receives, for example, only brief comments in the standard surveys of the economics of the family offered by Becker (1991), Bergstrom (1996; 1997), Cabrillo (1999), Cigno (1991), Ermisch (1993), Grossbard-She
5、chtman (1993), Pollak (1985) and Weiss (1997). Empirically, the most frequent type of marital contract in common law jurisdictions is the ex post separation agreement drafted following marriage breakdown. Such post-marital separation agreements are typically preferred to a judicially determined divo
6、rce settlement both by divorcing couples (Farmer and Tiefenthaler, 2001) and by courts which rarely set aside privately negotiated solutions. Less numerous are ex ante separation agreements, comprising both prenuptial contracts written prior to marriage and those negotiated during a continuing marriage. Ex post separation agreements, signed at divorce, are relatively uncontroversial and have less analytically interesting characteristics than marital contracts negotiated either as a condition
