This article examines the "added worker effect," which is the labor supply response of wives to their husbands' job losses. Unlike past studies, which focused on the husbands' current unemployment status, this article analyzes wives' responses before and after job losses to examine the life-cycle labor supply adjustments. Using Panel Study of Income Dynamics data reveals small predisplacement effects and large, persistent postdisplacement effects. The timing of the responses differs with type of displacement, possibly because of differences in the information acquired before job loss. Long-run labor supply increases compensate for over 25% of the husbands' lost income.

Earnings shocks should affect divorce probability by changing a couple’s expected gains from marriage. We find that the divorce hazard rises after a spouse’s job displacement but does not change after a spousal disability. This difference casts doubt on a purely pecuniary motivation for divorce following earnings shocks, since both types of shocks exhibit similar long‐run economic consequences. Furthermore, the increase in divorce is found only for layoffs and not for plant closings, suggesting that information conveyed about a partner’s noneconomic suitability as a mate due to a job loss may be more important than financial losses in precipitating divorce.