对惩罚婚外情的经济学分析

An Economic Analysis of the Punishment on Adultery

本文就对婚外情实施法律惩罚的可能效果进行了经济学的分析。婚姻是一种受法律保护的长期合同。离婚是解除这一合同的惟一合法手段，而婚外情则是违约。但是，惩罚婚姻违约不一定能增加社会中高质量的婚姻。本文的分析表明，惩罚婚外情只有在离婚成本较低的情况下才能起到好的效果。当离婚成本很高时，它要么惩罚的对象更可能是感情执着的正人君子，要么迫使他们更愿意不结婚。中国的离婚成本很高，对婚外情实施法律惩罚难以达到增加高质量婚姻的目的。

This paper provides an economic analysis on the punishment on adul- tery proposed by China's new Marriage Law that took effect in April 2001.The law gives the victim the right to demand for compensation from the violator in divorce settlement. The analysis shows that when the divorce cost is high,this new law will tend to punish people with a sincere desire for good quality marriage and deter them from getting into marriage.Since the social and financial costs imposed on divorce are very high in current China,the new law is likely to lower the quality of marriage.