That's not the same estimand. Maybe happier people are more likely to get or stay married. Changes in laws are more likely to be exogenous to this. At the same

That's not the same estimand. Maybe happier people are more likely to get or stay married. Changes in laws are more likely to be exogenous to this. At the same time the headline already simplifies the article, which focuses a lot on laws about division of property after divorce, and the article itself is dodging some of the negative consequences of easier divorce. See e.g.: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/423155 https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/423155 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-012-0435-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-012-0435-7