We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine trends in child support payments over the past thirty years and to assess five different explanations for these trends: inflation, the shift to unilateral divorce, changes in marital status composition, changes in men's and...

Increasing the probability of paying child support, in addition to increasing resources available for investment in children, may also alter the incentives faced by men to have children out of wedlock. We find that strengthening child support enforcement leads men to have fewer out-of-wedlock...

This paper tests the hypothesis that child support obligations impede remarriage among nonresident fathers. Hazard models fit to data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and from the Survey of Income and Program Participation reveal that child support obligations deter remarriage...

This paper studies retirement and child support policies in a small, open, overlapping-generations economy with PAYG social security and endogenous retirement and fertility decisions. It demonstrates that neither fertility nor retirement choices necessarily coincide with socially optimal...

We compare decisions by female and male judges in child support trials where a judge decides on the father's income allocation to children. We investigate two types of cases: 1) when fathers have a formal job, their income is known to judges, and awards are set as a fraction of it, and 2) when...

A large proportion of divorced and separated fathers form new partnerships. The new partner's preferences are not likely to put much weight on expenditures on the man's children from his previous union. Thus, his own and his partner's income would have different impacts on his child support...

Child support is a private transfer that is integral to the means-tested public transfer system. Support payments generally lower the budget costs of welfare as well the incentives for parents to participate. The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, which establishes and enforces support...

Since the mid-1970s, the number of single-parent families has increased greatly in the U.S., contributing to the nation's child poverty problem. In response, the federal government and various states have tried to increase child support payments from non-custodial parents. Using data from...

Ansley Coale and Edgar Hoover were right about Asia. Rising fertility and declining infant mortality have had a profound impact on Asian savings, investment and foreign capital dependency since Coale and Hoover wrote in 1958. We argue that: Much of the impressive rise in Asian savings rates...

This paper explores the potential benefit of enforcement in Child Support policies to child mortality rates. Exploiting the sharp changes in Child Support laws across states and over the years 1975-1993, we find that adoption of a full set of policies reduces the child death rate by 23% relative...

The New Zealand reform around child support, namely the Child Support Act 1991, was brought in with the intent of helping children through greater assistance from the absent parent. However, this simple ideal overlooks the complexities of social conditions and public attitudes. Situations such...

This article examines some of the reasons why the Government is undertaking a further review of the Child Support Act 1991. It also discusses a range of judgments, including five appeals to the High Court

The Child Support Act 1991 has been a highly controversial piece of legislation. While much of the public consternation has quietened, questions should still be asked about the scheme. To what extent are children and caregivers gaining anything substantial? Given the State's vested interest in...

The Child Support Act 1991 sits awkwardly in the framework of family law statutes in New Zealand. Governed by the Inland Revenue Department, it is not typical of legislation of its kind, as it does not expressly consider the best interests of the child. However, the cases of C v L [Child...

This paper examines the effect of economic incentives generated by U.S. divorce and custody law on a range of child health and human capital measures. State laws vary widely in the treatment of child support under joint custody. While some states require no child support in joint custody cases,...

This paper examines the effect of economic incentives generated by U.S. divorce and custody law on a range of child health and human capital measures. State laws vary widely in the treatment of child support under joint custody. While some states require no child support in joint custody cases,...

This study uses the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS data) from 2013 to study 1) the contribution of child maintenance to the income packages of lone mothers, 2) the proportion of lone mothers receiving child maintenance and the level of child maintenance for those receiving it, and 3) the extent to...

In this paper we examine the role of child support in the economic well-being of children in single-parent families in Latin America. We use the Luxembourg Income Study wave IX and the 2012 Colombian Quality of Life Survey to answer three questions: (1) are children in single-parent families...

The present paper investigates how parents responsible for child maintenance payments have re sponded to changes in the amount of obligations. The potential endogeneity of child support obligations is addressed by using SOEP panel data from 1985-2013 and applying individual FE-IV models. Results...

The 2008 alimony reform in Germany considerably reduced post-marital and caregiver alimony. We analyze how individuals adapted to these changed rulings in terms of labor supply, the intra-household allocation of leisure, and marital stability. We use the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and...

The 2008 alimony reform in Germany considerably reduced post-marital and caregiver alimony. We analyze how individuals adapted to these changed rulings in terms of labor supply, the intra-household allocation of leisure, and marital stability. We use the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and...

The 2008 alimony reform in Germany considerably reduced post-marital and caregiver alimony. We analyze how individuals adapted to these changed rulings in terms of labor supply, the intra-household allocation of leisure, and marital stability. We use the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and...

Given that the importance of child support increases with the decline of the traditional family, it is essential to address the issues facing the child support system, such as high arrearages and loss of involvement by many noncustodial parents. This Article explores the merits of changing the...

The 2008 alimony reform in Germany considerably reduced post-marital and caregiver alimony. We analyze how individuals adapted to these changed rulings in terms of labor supply, the intra-household allocation of leisure, and marital stability. We use the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and...

One objective of child support schemes is to reduce the reliance of lone parents on government transfers. I estimate the effect of receiving child support on the household income and labour market activity of payee lone mothers in Australia. I use variation in the amount of child support...

We leverage non-linearities in Danish child support guidelines and rich administrative data to provide causal estimates of parental behavioral responses to child support obligations. We estimate that a 1,000 DKK ($149) increase in a father's obligation is associated with a 506 DKK ($75) increase...

We leverage non-linearities in Danish child support guidelines and rich administrative data to provide causal estimates of parental behavioral responses to child support obligations. We estimate that a 1,000 DKK ($149) increase in a father's obligation is associated with a 506 DKK ($75) increase...