When the State Retreats: Work Units, Marital Regulation, and Rising Divorce Rates in China ∗ Yifeng Wan † Johns Hopkins University April 18, 2019 Abstract The high and rising divorce rate in China is not easily reconciled with tradi- tional theories that emphasize the role of modernization in changing family life. By reformulating the state social engineering theory, this paper argues that the retreat of the state from private life has contributed to China’s ris- ing divorce rates in the past four decades. A divorce reform that simplified divorce procedures and the declining significance of the work unit are two mechanisms through which the retreating state may influence divorce rates. Results from province-level panel data set suggest that smaller share of em- ployment in state and collective work units is associated with higher divorce rates. The diminishing function of institutional control accounts for the effect of the work unit on rising divorce rates. Key words: Divorce; work units; state regulation; divorce law; Chinese families ∗I am grateful to Andy Cherlin for his support and guidance throughout the entirety of this project. I also thank Joel Andreas, Julia Burdick-Will, Rachel Butler, Sebastian Link Chaparro, Lingxin Hao, Conrad Jacober, Tiantian Liu, Rhiannon Miller, Elayne Cardoso de Morais, Steve Morgan, Kiara Nerenberg, Corey Payne, Sonal Sharma, Xingyun Wu, Xiao Yu, Yuehua Zhang, Nanxi Zeng, and seminar participants at Johns Hopkins University and Zhejiang University for their helpful comments. †Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, 555 Mergenthaler Hall, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Email:
[email protected]. 1 Introduction Traditionally a society with universal marriage and low divorce rates (Yang 1959), China has witnessed substantial increase in divorce rates in the past four decades.