"The effects of changing life span on certain life cycle measures of post-marital life are examined with the help of numerically computed values of such measures under various mortality and divorce levels.  The results show that in the absence of divorce the increase in mean marital duration effected by a mortality decline is even greater than the increase in total post-marriage life.  Thus, in such populations, the expected length of widowhood actually declines in spite of the fact that a greater proportion of women face widowhood as mortality falls.  But this is not true for populations with moderate or high divorce levels, which would experience relatively smaller improvements in mean marital durations and consequently the length of post-dissolution life increases through a mortality decline in such populations." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND ITA)