[throwaway09223]

> That's a pretty drastic drop, with no explanation (in this article)

It's because spousal support terminates at 65. At that point both parties are presumed retired and can't be compelled to work.

> Mr Vandenbroucke said it was not possible to draw conclusions

It's very possible. The spousal/child support system is grossly unfair. I have seen support awards at 300% of the family's income.

[bbreier]

The article explicitly states that the drop is in income, and does not take spousal or child support into account

[throwaway09223]

It is a factor, even if not taken into account in their analysis. At 64, someone might be compelled by the court to work. This can't happen at 65+

65 is retirement. Everyone's income drops around this time.

[ethanbond]

Yeah if anything this would indicate that wives are providing much more lift to their husbands' careers than vice versa.

[sottol]

Or the payer of support finds ways to "hide" income or they put in less effort and earn less knowing that some of it goes towards child/spousal support.

[ethanbond]

That's an interesting hypothesis too!

[snapplebobapple]

Thats probably more accurate. I knowi work a lot less now than i did a decade ago because i have built up a nest egg and there is no point incrementally destroying my health, work life balance, etc. When the greasy government is taking half. The incremental value is not there vs non taxed uses of my time like raising my children.

[s1artibartfast]

That is one possibility among many. It is also possible they were taking on more work than they would like.

[ethanbond]

That's another good hypothesis! Just goes to show how correct the author was in stating that it's very hard to interpret.

[s1artibartfast]

Indeed. If you follow that line of thinking, there's probably lots of both men and women that struggled to support their partner before divorce, and are relieved of that burden after divorce. You could easily see effects from this on both side at the same time. All it would take is for the primary earner income to go down, and for the low or no income partners earnings to remain the same. This results in a net reduction in income for both genders.