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Discouraging Disadvantaged Fathers’ Employment: An Unintended Consequence of Policies Designed to Support Families
Author(s) -
Cancian Maria,
Heinrich Carolyn J.,
Chung Yiyoon
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/pam.21707
Subject(s) - child support , earnings , disadvantaged , debt , unemployment , enforcement , demographic economics , income support , labour economics , unintended consequences , childbirth , survey of income and program participation , business , poverty , economics , political science , economic growth , pregnancy , finance , genetics , biology , law , macroeconomics
Abstract 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.