Discouraging Disadvantaged Fathers' Employment: An Unintended Consequence of Policies Designed to Support Families. (24th June 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cancian, Maria; Heinrich, Carolyn J.; Chung, Yiyoon
• Is Part Of: Journal of policy analysis and management. Volume 32:issue 4(2013)
• Page Start: 758
• Page End: 784
• Publication Date: 2013-06-24
• Subjects: Policy sciences -- Periodicals; Political planning -- United States -- Periodicals; United States -- Social policy -- Periodicals; 353
• DOI: 10.1002/pam.21707
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0276-8739

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Substantial declines in employment and earnings among disadvantaged men may be exacerbated by child support enforcement policies that are designed to help support families but may have the unintended consequence of discouraging fathers' employment. Disentangling causal effects is challenging because high child support debt may be both a cause and a consequence of unemployment and low child support order compliance. We used childbirth costs charged in unmarried mothers' Medicaid‐covered childbirths, from Wisconsin administrative records, as an exogenous source of variation to identify the impact of debt. We found that greater debt has a substantial negative effect on fathers' formal employment and child support payments, and that this effect is mediated by fathers' prebirth earnings histories.</p> </abstract>