IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wop/jopovw/246.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Impact of Child Support Enforcement on Nonmarital and Marital Births: Does It Differ by Racial and Age Groups?

Author

Listed:
  • Chien-Chung Huang

Abstract

Using the 1979 through 1998 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women (NLSY), this paper provides evidence that women who lived in states with effective child support enforcement, measured by both strict child support legislation and high child support expenditure, were more likely to have marital births and less likely to have nonmarital births. The findings suggest that the deterrence effect of child support enforcement on men dominates the opposite effect on women. In addition, the impact of child support enforcement differed by racial and age groups. For black women, effective child support enforcement had a strong effect of decreasing nonmarital births, but not of increasing marital births. The impact, however, went the opposite way for white and/or post-teenage women.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:wop:jopovw:246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moffitt, Robert, 1992. "Incentive Effects of the U.S. Welfare System: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 1-61, March.
    2. Lundberg, Shelly & Plotnick, Robert D, 1995. "Adolescent Premarital Childbearing: Do Economic Incentives Matter?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 177-200, April.
    3. 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.
    4. Thomas Hanson & Irwin Garfinkel & Sara Mclanahan & Cynthia Miller, 1996. "Trends in child support outcomes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(4), pages 483-496, November.
    5. Maynard, Rebecca, 1995. "Teenage childbearing and welfare reform: Lessons from a decade of demonstration and evaluation research," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 309-332.
    6. Ann E. Horvath-Rose & H. Elizabeth Peters, 2000. "Welfare Waivers and Non-Marital Childbearing," JCPR Working Papers 128, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    7. Saul D. Hoffman & E. Michael Foster, 2000. "AFDC Benefits and Nonmarital Births to Young Women," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(2), pages 376-391.
    8. Virginia W. Knox, 1996. "The Effects of Child Support Payments on Developmental Outcomes for Elementary School-Age Children," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(4), pages 816-840.
    9. I. Garfinkel & P. K. Robins, "undated". "The relationship between child support enforcement tools and child support outcomes," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1004-93, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    10. 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.
    11. Larry Bumpass & Sara McLanahan, 1989. "Unmarried Motherhood: Recent Trends, Composition, and Black-White Differences," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 26(2), pages 279-286, May.
    12. An, Chong-Bum & Haveman, Robert & Wolfe, Barbara, 1993. "Teen Out-of-Wedlock Births and Welfare Receipt: The Role of Childhood Events and Economic Circumstances," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(2), pages 195-208, May.
    13. 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.
    14. Mark R. Rosenzweig, 1999. "Welfare, Marital Prospects, and Nonmarital Childbearing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(S6), pages 3-32, December.
    15. Weiss, Yoram & Willis, Robert J, 1985. "Children as Collective Goods and Divorce Settlements," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 268-292, July.
    16. David E. Bloom & Cecilia Conrad & Cynthia Miller, 1996. "Child Support and Fathers' Remarriage and Fertility," NBER Working Papers 5781, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. Lucia A. Nixon, 1997. "The Effect of Child Support Enforcement on Marital Dissolution," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(1), pages 159-181.
    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. Lingxin Hao & Nan Astone & Andrew Cherlin, 2007. "Effects of child support and welfare policies on nonmarital teenage childbearing and motherhood," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 26(3), pages 235-257, June.

    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. Irwin Garfinkel & Daniel S. Gaylin & Chien-Chung Huang & Sara McLanahan, 2002. "The Roles of Child Support Enforcement and Welfare In Nonmarital Childbearing," JCPR Working Papers 266, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    2. Wolfe, Barbara & Wilson, Kathryn & Haveman, Robert, 2001. "The role of economic incentives in teenage nonmarital childbearing choices," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 473-511, September.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Arnstein Aassve, 2000. "Economic resources and single motherhood: incidence and resolution of premarital childbearing among young American women," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2000-015, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    6. Arnstein Aassve, 2003. "The impact of economic resources on premarital childbearing and subsequent marriage among young American women," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(1), pages 105-126, February.
    7. Melissa Schettini Kearney, 2004. "Is There an Effect of Incremental Welfare Benefits on Fertility Behavior?: A Look at the Family Cap," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    8. R. Haveman & B. Wolfe & K. Wilson & E. Peterson, "undated". "Do Teens Make Rational Choices? The Case of Teen Nonmarital Childbearing," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1137-97, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    9. Libertad González Luna, 2005. "The determinants of the prevalence of single mothers: A cross-country analysis," Economics Working Papers 876, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    10. Anna Aizer & ASara McLanahan, 2006. "The Impact of Child Support Enforcement on Fertility, Parental Investments, and Child Well-Being," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(1).
    11. Jagannathan, Radha & Camasso, Michael J., 2011. "Message and price components of Family Caps: Experimental evidence from New Jersey," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 292-302, August.
    12. Radha Jagannathan & Michael J. Camasso & Mark Killingsworth, 2004. "New Jersey's Family Cap Experiment: Do Fertility Impacts Differ by Racial Density?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 431-460, April.
    13. 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.
    14. Saul D. Hoffman & E. Michael Foster, 2000. "AFDC Benefits and Nonmarital Births to Young Women," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(2), pages 376-391.
    15. Rebekah Levine Coley & P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, 1999. "Welfare, Poverty, and Financial Strain In Urban African American Families with Adolescent Daughters," JCPR Working Papers 116, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    16. 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.
    17. Anna Raute & Andrea Weber & Galina Zudenkova, 2022. "Can public policy increase paternity acknowledgment? Evidence from earnings-related parental leave," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2206, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    18. 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.
    19. Christopher A. Jepsen & Lisa K. Jepsen, 2006. "The Effects Of Statutory Rape Laws On Nonmarital Teenage Childbearing," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(1), pages 35-51, January.
    20. Oscar A. Mitnik, 2007. "Intergenerational transmission of welfare dependency: The effects of length of exposure," Working Papers 0715, University of Miami, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wop:jopovw:246. 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: Thomas Krichel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jcuchus.html .

    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.