St. Louis Fed's The Regional Economist:

Splitsville: The Economics of Unilateral Divorce

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The January edition of The Regional
Economist, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' quarterly publication of
economic and business issues, features the following articles. (The
publication is also available on the Bank's web site:
http://stlouisfed.org/publications/re/default.html.)
-- "Splitsville: The Economics of Unilateral Divorce." After 1970,
divorce laws began to change, with many states adopting unilateral
divorce. Researcher Kristie M. Engemann and economist Michael T.
Owyang look at the economic and social implications of making divorce
easier to obtain. Surveying the economic literature, they find
studies that suggest unilateral divorce may have led to outcomes such
as an increase in the number of mothers in the labor force, a decline
in the level of girls' educational attainment, and a reduction in
spousal violence.

-- "Stable Prices, Stable Economy." Are the Federal Reserve's mandates of
maximum employment, stable prices, moderate interest rates and
financial stability compatible with one another? St. Louis Fed
President William Poole and economist David C. Wheelock analyze two
differing views of inflation. One view holds that moderate inflation
can help promote full employment, economic growth and stable financial
markets. Another camp, building on the work of Nobel Prize winners
Milton Friedman and Edmund Phelps, argues that inflationary policies
do not boost employment or economic growth in the long run. Poole and
Wheelock find that as the empirical evidence mounted, many economists
eventually came to embrace the latter view -- namely, that central
banks can best promote high employment, economic growth and financial
stability by making price stability the paramount goal of monetary
policy.

-- "Clearing the Haze: New Evidence on the Economic Impact of Smoking
Bans." More and more communities across the country are adopting
"smoke-free" laws. Economist Michael R. Pakko looks at the economic
studies to date on the impact of these laws, particularly on
restaurants and bars, which depend, in part, on patronage by smokers.
He found several studies that indicate an overall decline in sales and
employment, sometimes significantly, for some restaurants and bars in
communities that passed smoke-free laws. While he concedes that the
economic effects of smoke-free laws may be difficult to identify and
interpret, Pakko suggests that policymakers may want to study the
evidence from both public health professionals and economists.

-- "Community Profile: Carbondale, Ill." This community southeast of
St. Louis, Mo., runs on three economic cylinders: education, health
care and retailing. Education -- in the form of Southern Illinois
University-Carbondale -- trumps all, most visibly when the
university's fans converge on the town for football and basketball
games. The university also hopes to capitalize on work being
conducted by Midwest Energy Group, which was spun off by the school's
chemistry department in 2006 to research biofuels. Scientists at the
university also are researching technologies to clean coal and convert
it to other fuels.

SOURCE Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Charles B. Henderson of Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, +1-314-444-8311,
cell, +1-314-609-5972, charles.b.henderson@stls.frb.org