IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/demogr/v40y2003i1p171-189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explaining trends in child support: Economic, demographic, and policy effects

Author

Listed:
  • Anne Case
  • I-Fen Lin
  • Sara Mclanahan

Abstract

We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine trends in the receipt of child support (and the determinants of trends) between 1968 and 1997. The findings suggest that political, demographic, and economic forces all exerted downward pressure on child-support payments during this 30-year period, with inflation, the shift to unilateral divorce, and declines in fertility and men's earnings being more important during the earlier years and decreases in men's earnings being more important during the later years. These negative forces were offset by the passage of new child-support legislation in the 1980s and 1990s, including numeric guidelines, universal withholding, and genetic testing.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Case & I-Fen Lin & Sara Mclanahan, 2003. "Explaining trends in child support: Economic, demographic, and policy effects," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(1), pages 171-189, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:40:y:2003:i:1:p:171-189
    DOI: 10.1353/dem.2003.0002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1353/dem.2003.0002
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1353/dem.2003.0002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura M. Argys & H. Elizabeth Peters & Donald M. Waldman, 2001. "Can the Family Support Act Put Some Life Back into Deadbeat Dads?: An Analysis of Child-Support Guidelines, Award Rates, and Levels," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(2), pages 226-252.
    2. Richard B. Freeman & Jane Waldfogel, 2001. "Dunning Delinquent Dads: The Effects of Child Support Enforcement Policy on Child Support Receipt by Never Married Women," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(2), pages 207-225.
    3. Philip K. Robins, 1992. "Why Did Child Support Award Levels Decline from 1978 to 1985?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 27(2), pages 362-379.
    4. John W. Graham & Philip K. Robins, 1995. "A Comment on "Why Did Child Support Award Levels Decline from 1978 to 1985?" by Philip K. Robins," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30(3), pages 622-632.
    5. Edin, Kathryn, 1995. "Single mothers and child support: The possibilities and limits of child support policy," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 203-230.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:pri:crcwel:wp06-09-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Brandeanna Allen & John Nunley & Alan Seals, 2011. "The Effect of Joint-Child-Custody Legislation on the Child-Support Receipt of Single Mothers," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 124-139, March.
    3. Lenna Nepomnyaschy & Irwin Garfinkel, 2009. "Child Support Enforcement and Fathers' Contributions to Their Nonmarital Children," Working Papers 909, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    4. Anne C. Case & I-Fen Lin & Sara McLanahan, 2002. "Explaining Child Support Trends: Economic, Demographic, and Policy Effects," JCPR Working Papers 267, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    5. Huang, Chien-Chung & Han, Ke-Qing, 2012. "Child support enforcement in the United States: Has policy made a difference?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 622-627.
    6. Daniel I. Tannenbaum, 2019. "The effect of child support on selection into marriage and fertility," Working Papers 19-04, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Maria Cancian & Daniel R. Meyer & Robert G. Wood, 2022. "Do Carrots Work Better than Sticks? Results from the National Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(2), pages 552-578, March.
    8. Chien-Chung Huang, 2001. "The Impact of Child Support Enforcement on Nonmarital and Marital Births: Does It Differ by Racial and Age Groups?," JCPR Working Papers 246, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    9. Brigitte Pereira, 2023. "Guidelines, court decisions and dismissals [Barèmes d’indemnisation, décisions de justice et licenciement]," Post-Print hal-04190156, HAL.
    10. Guarin, Angela & Costanzo, Molly, 2020. "Noncustodial fathers’ financial contributions to children in three-generation households," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    11. Cécile Bourreau-Dubois & Myriam Doriat-Duban & Bruno Jeandidier & Jean Claude Ray, 2020. "Do sentencing guidelines result in lower inter-judge disparity? Evidence from framed field experiment," Working Papers of BETA 2020-28, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    12. Maureen R Waller & Robert Plotnick, 2001. "Effective child support policy for low-income families: evidence from street level research," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 89-110.
    13. Maya Rossin-Slater, 2017. "Signing Up New Fathers: Do Paternity Establishment Initiatives Increase Marriage, Parental Investment, and Child Well-Being?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 93-130, April.
    14. Huang, Chien-Chung & Edwards, Richard L., 2009. "The relationship between state efforts and child support performance," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 243-248, February.
    15. Kristin Mammen, 2020. "Children’s Gender and Investments from Nonresident Fathers," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 332-349, June.
    16. Elaine Sorensen & Ariel Hill, 2004. "Single Mothers and Their Child-Support Receipt: How Well Is Child-Support Enforcement Doing?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(1).
    17. Robert I. Lerman, 1993. "Policy Watch: Child Support Policies," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 171-182, Winter.
    18. Kanako Ishida, 2010. "The Role of Ethnicity in Father Absence and Children’s School Enrollment in Guatemala," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 29(4), pages 569-591, August.
    19. Shannon Seitz & Geoffrey Sanzenbacher & Andrew Beauchamp & Meghan Skira, 2014. "Deadbeat Dads," 2014 Meeting Papers 435, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    20. Lee, Daeyong & Weems, Carl F. & Rouse, Heather L. & Melby, Janet N. & Zhao, Feng & Bartel, Maya & Goudy, Kathryn, 2020. "Targeted child support enforcement and its association with child support payments: Evidence from a program evaluation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    21. Meyer, Daniel R. & Cancian, Maria & Waring, Melody K., 2020. "Use of child support enforcement actions and their relationship to payments," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:40:y:2003:i:1:p:171-189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.