The Effect of Child Support on Selection into Marriage and Fertility

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Tannenbaum, Daniel, I
• 署名单位: University of Nebraska System; University of Nebraska Lincoln
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/705928
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 611-652
• 关键词: enforcement policy; gender-gap; IMPACT; well; divorce; receipt; welfare; dads

摘要

This paper studies the expansion of US child support policies from 1977 to 1992 and its consequences for marriage and fertility decisions. I develop a model showing that child support enforces ex ante commitment from men to provide financial support in the event of a child, which (1) increases premarital sex among couples unlikely to marry and (2) reduces the abortion rate by reducing the cost of child-rearing to single moms. Using variation in the rollout relative to the timing of nonmarital pregnancy, I find that child support policies reduced the likelihood of marriage and reduced the abortion rate.