IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v26y2007i1p79-98.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of child support enforcement policy on nonmarital childbearing

Author

Listed:
  • Robert D. Plotnick

    (University of Washington)

  • Irwin Garfinkel

    (Columbia University)

  • Sara S. McLanahan

    (Princeton University)

  • Inhoe Ku

    (Seoul National University)

Abstract

The interaction of welfare and child support regulations has created a situation in which child support policy's incentives that discourage unwed fatherhood tend to be stronger than its incentives that encourage unwed motherhood. This suggests that more stringent child support enforcement creates incentives that reduce the likelihood of nonmarital childbearing, particularly among women with a significant chance of needing public assistance in the event of a nonmarital birth and their male partners. We investigate this hypothesis with a sample of women from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, to which we add information on state child support enforcement. We examine childbearing behavior between the ages of 15 and 44 before marriage and during periods of non-marriage following divorce or widowhood. The estimates indicate that women living in states with more effective child support enforcement are less likely to bear children when unmarried, especially if they are young, never-married, or black. The findings suggest that improved child support enforcement may be a potent intervention for reducing nonmarital childbearing. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert D. Plotnick & Irwin Garfinkel & Sara S. McLanahan & Inhoe Ku, 2007. "The impact of child support enforcement policy on nonmarital childbearing," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 79-98.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:26:y:2007:i:1:p:79-98
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.20228
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.20228
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pam.20228?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert A. Moffitt, 2003. "Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number moff03-1, March.
    2. Irwin Garfinkel & Cynthia Miller & Sara S. McLanahan & Thomas L. Hanson, 1998. "Deadbeat Dads or Inept States?," Evaluation Review, , vol. 22(6), pages 717-750, December.
    3. Harry J. Holzer & Paul Offner & Elaine Sorensen, 2005. "Declining employment among young black less-educated men: The role of incarceration and child support," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 329-350.
    4. Robert J. Willis, 1999. "A Theory of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(S6), pages 33-64, December.
    5. Leonard M. Lopoo & Thomas DeLeire, 2006. "Did welfare reform influence the fertility of young teens?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 275-298.
    6. McKinley L. Blackburn, 2000. "Welfare Effects on the Marital Decisions of Never-Married Mothers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(1), pages 116-142.
    7. Chien-Chung Huang & James Kunz & Irwin Garfinkel, 2002. "The effect of child support on welfare exits and re-entries," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 557-576.
    8. Robert I. Lerman & Elaine Sorenson, 2003. "Child Support: Interactions between Private and Public Transfers," NBER Chapters, in: Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, pages 587-628, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Favara, Marta & Lavado, Pablo & Sanchez, Alan, 2016. "Understanding Teenage Fertility, Cohabitation, and Marriage: The Case of Peru," IZA Discussion Papers 10270, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Marta Favara & Pablo Lavado & Alan Sánchez, 2020. "Understanding teenage fertility in Peru: An analysis using longitudinal data," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 1217-1236, November.
    3. 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.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Shannon Seitz & Geoffrey Sanzenbacher & Andrew Beauchamp & Meghan Skira, 2014. "Deadbeat Dads," 2014 Meeting Papers 435, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    4. Leonard M. Lopoo & Kerri M. Raissian, 2014. "U.S. Social Policy and Family Complexity," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 654(1), pages 213-230, July.
    5. Ronald B. Mincy & Serena Klempin & Heather Schmidt, 2011. "Income Support Policies for Low-Income Men and Noncustodial Fathers: Tax and Transfer Programs," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 635(1), pages 240-261, May.
    6. Rossin-Slater, Maya & Wüst, Miriam, 2018. "Parental responses to child support obligations: Evidence from administrative data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 183-196.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Lincoln H. Groves, 2016. "Welfare Reform and Labor Force Exit by Young, Low-Skilled Single Males," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(2), pages 393-418, April.
    10. Chien-Chung Huang & Allison Blake & Richard L. Edwards & Chieh-Wen Liu & Robert B. Nolan & Barbara Rusen & Dina Thompson, 2010. "Professional Knowledge of Child Support Staff: Evidence From the New Jersey Child Support Training Program," Evaluation Review, , vol. 34(1), pages 3-18, February.
    11. Lincoln H. Groves & Sarah Hamersma & Leonard M. Lopoo, 2018. "Pregnancy Medicaid Expansions and Fertility: Differentiating Between the Intensive and Extensive Margins," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(3), pages 461-484, June.
    12. 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.
    13. Thomas DeLeire & Leonard Lopoo & Kosali Simon, 2011. "Medicaid Expansions and Fertility in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(2), pages 725-747, May.
    14. C. Huang & I. Garfinkel & J. Waldfogel, "undated". "Child Support and Welfare Caseloads," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1218-00, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    15. Hodges, Leslie, 2020. "Do low-income parents who receive unemployment insurance pay more child support?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    16. Lincoln H. Groves & Leonard M. Lopoo, 2018. "Federal Financial Aid and Family Formation: Examining the Social Security Student Benefit Program," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 436-444, September.
    17. Maureen R. Waller, 2010. "Viewing Low-Income Fathers’ Ties to Families through a Cultural Lens: Insights for Research and Policy," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 629(1), pages 102-124, May.
    18. Jirjahn, Uwe & Chadi, Cornelia, 2016. "Risk Attitude and Nonmarital Birth," IZA Discussion Papers 10316, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Kota Ogasawara & Mizuki Komura, 2022. "Consequences of war: Japan’s demographic transition and the marriage market," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 1037-1069, July.
    20. Marco Francesconi & Wilbert van der Klaauw, 2007. "The Socioeconomic Consequences of "In-Work" Benefit Reform for British Lone Mothers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(1).

    More about this item

    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:wly:jpamgt:v:26:y:2007:i:1:p:79-98. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    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.