Child Support: Interaction between Private and Public Transfers
64 Pages Posted: 31 Mar 2001 Last revised: 29 May 2022
Date Written: April 2001
Abstract
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 obligations, also affects the incentives of the non-custodial parent donors and ultimately the distribution of incomes. While not formally income-tested, CSE still targets low-income families because so many custodial families are poor. This paper reviews the history of the CSE program; the economic rationale for government's role; trends in support awards and payments; the importance of child support to low-income families; the capacity of non-custodial parents to pay child support; trends in costs, financing and effectiveness of the CSE program; the effects of child support on behavior; equity issues in child support; and proposals for reform. Despite efficiency gains in the CSE program, especially in establishing paternity, a shift in the composition of cases has offset these improvements, causing support payments per custodial mother to rise only modestly in real terms.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Labor Supply Response to the Earned Income Tax Credit
By Nada Eissa and Jeffrey B. Liebman
-
Welfare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Labor Supply of Single Mothers
By Bruce D. Meyer and Dan T. Rosenbaum
-
By V. Joseph Hotz and John Karl Scholz
-
The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Labor Supply of Married Couples
-
Financial Incentives for Increasing Work and Income Among Low-Income Families
By Rebecca M. Blank, David Card, ...
-
Making Single Mothers Work: Recent Tax and Welfare Policy and its Effects
By Bruce D. Meyer and Dan T. Rosenbaum