CHILD SUPPORT, ROUTINE INCOME WITHHOLDING, AND POST-DIVORCE INCOME

Policymakers are proposing child support reform as a way of reducing "welfare dependency" and countering the "feminization of poverty" while increasing the well-being of children living in single-parent households. The federal government and some states have begun to change laws regarding establishment of child support awards and collection of payments. The 1988 Family Support Act mandates routine income withholding of child support payments—i.e., collecting child support directly from the payer's paycheck. This article assesses the effects on post-divorce income by using data from a demonstration of routine withholding in ten Wisconsin counties. Unfortunately, these data conclude that routine income withholding has little effect on post-divorce income, at least in the year following divorce. The authors suggest three requirements for substantially increasing post-divorce income, as well as child support: (i) More family court cases must establish awards, (ii) The amount of those awards must be greater. (Hi) The collection rate for those who have awards must improve.     

A STACKELBERG MODEL OF CHILD SUPPORT AND WELFARE*

This article models the child support and welfare decisions of never‐married parents on welfare as a Stackelberg game. The mother chooses whether to exit welfare, report paternity, and to obtain a formal child support order. If a child support order is obtained, the father chooses whether to comply with the order. Simulation results from the structural parameters indicate that increasing the child support disregard increases paternal compliance slightly and affects maternal paternity reporting more significantly; effects are limited, however, by low paternal incomes. Results also indicate that high award amounts can decrease expected child support payments to women on welfare.     

On General and Specific Transfers for Child Support in Divorce

In a post-divorce equilibrium under joint legal custody of a child the paper compares the effect of two different transfer schemes, a general purpose transfer scheme and a specific purpose transfer scheme, from non-custodial parent to the custodial parent of the child on his/her welfare. Surprisingly, it finds that the marginal effects are neutral. The result contributes to the policy framework by suggesting that the lawyers/courts can choose the two alternatives equivalently in settling the child custody cases in a post-divorce situation. The paper also characterizes such transfer schemes and proves that the schemes can never restore the child’s welfare at the ‘happy marriage’ equilibrium level.

     

EARLY CORRECTIVE ACTION FOR TROUBLED BANKS

This paper presents data concerning the performance of the U.S. commercial bank supervisory system and identifies a number of needed improvements in areas including: (i) rules governing bank loss recognition, (ii) supervisory response to excessive loan concentrations and poor underwriting standards, (Hi) rules governing dividend payments by troubled banks, and (iv) the early closure or resolution of troubled banks.     

Child nutrition and family size in the Philippines

This paper uses household data from the Philippines to examine jointly household decisions on family size and child quality, using nutritional status as a measure of quality. The results suggest that there are significant substitutions away from larger families and towards higher quality children with higher maternal and paternal education. Similar but less significant substitutions occur with higher maternal occupational status, and lower child mortality in the locality. However the paper finds only limited support for the idea that parents are concerned about average child quality, since the results show that there are strong birth order effects on nutritional status.     

Love,money, and parental goods: Does parental matchmaking matter?

While parental matchmaking has been widespread throughout history and across countries, we know little about the relationship between parental matchmaking and marriage outcomes. Does parental involvement in matchmaking help ensure their needs are better taken care of by married children? This paper finds supportive evidence using a survey of Chinese couples. In particular, parental involvement in matchmaking is associated with having a more submissive wife, a greater number of children, a higher likelihood of having any male children, and a stronger belief of the husband in providing old age support to his parents. These benefits, however, are achieved at the cost of less marital harmony within the couple and lower market income of the wife. The results render support to and extend the findings of (Becker et al., 2015) where parents meddle with children’s preferences to ensure their commitment to providing parental goods such as old age support.     

Modes of Interaction Between Divorced Parents

I develop a model in which exact compliance with child support orders is synonymous with cooperative outcomes with respect to child good expenditures. The child support order imposed by institutional agents serves as focal point for the problem of dividing the gains from cooperation. Compliance is observed when the gains from cooperation exceed the value of noncooperation for both parents. The model is estimated using administrative data from the state of Wisconsin. My estimates imply that increasing child support enforcement activities may have weak effects on the welfare of children of divorced parents.     

Parental risk attitudes and children's academic test scores: evidence from the US panel study of income dynamics

Using a sequence of questions from the 1996 US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we explore the implications of interpersonal differences in parent's attitudes towards risk for the academic test scores of their children focusing on information drawn from the 1997 Child Development Supplement of the PSID. In addition, we explore whether parental risk preference influences whether the child subsequently attends college. Our findings suggest that a parent's degree of risk aversion is inversely related to the academic test scores of their children as well as being inversely related to the probability of attending college post high school.     

CONSEQUENCES OF MINIMUM WAGE INDEXING

During the 1980s, the minimum wage fell relative to prices and average wages in the U.S. economy. If the minimum to average wage ratio had been constant at the level maintained through the 1970s, the minimum wage would have been $5.51 in 1993. If the 1993 minimum wage had increased to $5.51, payments to minimum wage workers would have increased by an estimated $20.3 billion, and the number of people earning that wage would have risen from 2.0 million to 14.7 million. Elasticity estimates generated from other studies indicate that employment would have fallen 240,000 (4.4%) among 16–19 year olds and 349,000 (3.0%) among 20–24 year olds. Wage payments to minimum wage workers would have substantially increased, but the effect on family income distribution would have been small. Many minimum wage workers are children living with parents or adults in a family with other earners. Consequently, 75% of minimum wage workers account for less than half of their family's income.     

Measuring the Impact of Child Care Subsidies on the Incomes of Mothers Returning to Work

The cost of child care is one of the greatest financial barriers faced by mothers returning to work. In recognition of this cost, the federal government provides child care subsidies to assist families to meet the cost of child care.
This paper models the use of child care services and the provision of child care subsidies to determine how effective the Australian government child care support programs are in reducing the financial barriers that make returning to work difficult for many mothers. Both childcare assistance and the newer childcare cash rebate are modelled. The impact of these assistance measures is examined for couples and sole parents on different incomes with one or two children in child care.
It was found that child care subsidies are highly progressive and make a substantial contribution to vertical equity by offsetting child care costs related to employment. They also contribute to horizontal equity, by providing greater assistance in meeting child care costs for families with more than one child in care, in recognition of their greater need. Sole parents derived the greatest benefit from child care subsidies, particularly those on low incomes working full-time and with two children in care.     

A STOCHASTIC DYNAMIC MODEL OF THE MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN*

We estimate the parameters of a dynamic multiperiod model where parents with one child periodically decide whether their child uses mental health services. In this model, parents receive utility from household consumption and from their child's mental health. Mental health services may improve the child's mental health, but may be costly in terms of reduced household consumption and direct disutility. We find that mental health services can slightly improve a child's mental health, but the use of services accounts for a small fraction of the improvement of the mental health of the children in our sample.     

More on Marriage,Fertility, and the Distribution of Income*

According to Pareto (1896) , the distribution of income depends on “the nature of the people comprising a society, on the organization of the latter, and, also, in part, on chance.” In the model developed here the “nature of the people” is captured by attitudes toward marriage, divorce, fertility, and children. Singles search for mates in a marriage market. Married agents bargain about work, and the quantity and quality of children. They can divorce. Social policies, such as child support requirements, reflect the “organization of the (society).” Finally, “chance” is modeled by randomness in income, marriage opportunities, and marital bliss.     

代际经济支持、养老金和挤出效应—以上海市为例

利用2003年上海市老年人口状况与意愿跟踪调查数据,选取上海市城市老人作为研究对象,利用多元线性回归分析方法,考察养老金与代际经济支持之间的关系以及隐藏在代际经济支持背后的动机。代际经济支持的方向不仅从子女向父母,还从父母向子女;代际经济支持会被养老金挤出,但不会被全部挤出;利他主义和交换是隐藏在代际经济支持背后的动机;挤出效应得到验证。     

Children's Migration Decisions and Elderly Support in China: Evidences from CHARLS Pilot Data

The purpose of this paper is to explain the determinants of migration in China with special concern for elderly support based on evidences from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) pilot data. We find parents’ needs for care significantly affect adult children’s participation in migrant labor market. Joint family decisions have also been made among adult siblings as far as elderly support is concerned. Different patterns of migrant labor force participation in Zhejiang and Gansu provinces largely reflect the differences between their respective migrant labor markets. Understanding of these new patterns of China’s internal migration helps policy makers in China and other developing counties formulate effective social policies, and consequently, a more appropriate urbanization path.     

BANKRUPTCY AND DELINQUENCY IN A MODEL OF UNSECURED DEBT

This article documents and interprets a fact central to the dynamics of informal consumer debt default. We observe that for individuals 60– 90 days late on payments, (i) 85% make payments during the next quarter, and (ii) 40% reduce their debt. To understand these facts, we develop a quantitative model of debt delinquency and bankruptcy. Our model reproduces the dynamics of delinquency and suggests an interpretation of the data in which lenders frequently reset loan terms for delinquent borrowers, typically offering partial debt forgiveness, instead of a blanket imposition of the “penalty rates” most unsecured credit contracts specify.     

Parental Compensatory Behaviors and Early Child Health Outcomes in Cebu, Philippines()

A dynamic optimization model of parents choosing investments in their children's health motivates an empirical model of parents' choices of health inputs for their children and the impacts of these decisions on their children's subsequent health. Estimates of the child health input demand functions and the child health production functions from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey accord with the prediction that optimizing behavior results in higher levels of aggregate child health. Observable parental behaviors respond to the physical developmental status of their children. These parental responses appear to yield large and statistically significant improvements in children's early physiological outcomes. However, because some health inputs choices are not observable, it is impossible to ascertain whether these measured effects are due solely to variations in the observed input choices.     

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY RESEARCH

After more than a decade of scientific warning, the policy community has begun to take up the challenge of global climate change. This paper considers recent efforts to analyze policymaking in this area. Shortcomings in present policy research include: (i) inconsistencies in data and methods, (ii) myopic vision of available options, (Hi) overly anthropocentric cost/benefit assessments, (iv) inadequate treatment of uncertainly and irreversibility, (v) lack of recognition of developing and developed countries' differential motives, (vi) unsatisfactory presentation and interpretation of results, and (vii) limited peer review.     

Raising juveniles

This paper investigates how families decide how juveniles use their time. The problem is analyzed in three variations: (i) a ‘decentralized’ scheme, in which parents control the main budget, but their children dispose of their time as they see fit, together with any earnings from work on their own account; (ii) ‘hierarchy’, in which parents can enforce, at some cost, particular levels of schooling and supervised work contributing to the main budget; and (iii) the cooperative solution, in which resources are pooled and the threat point is one of the non-cooperative outcomes. Adults choose which game is played. While the subgame perfect equilibrium of the overall game is pareto-efficient, it may yield less education than ‘hierarchy’. Restrictions on child labor and compulsory schooling generally affect both the threat point and the feasible set of bargaining outcomes. Families may choose more schooling than the legal minimum.     

Child allowances and allocative decisions in Romanian households

In this paper it is tested whether increasing child allowances will affect the intra-household allocation of consumption, measured by child and adult goods, holding total household resources constant. The analysis is based on household survey data collected in Romania, where cash payments are made to families according to the number and age of children. Selectivity is controled for since there is the potential for self-selection bias in terms of the level of child allowances received. The findings suggest that holding total household resources constant, child allowances increase demand for child goods and calories and reduce demand for adult goods.     

Parental compensatory behaviors and early child health outcomes in Cebu,Philippines

A dynamic optimization model of parents choosing investments in their children's health motivates an empirical model of parents' choices of health inputs for their children and the impacts of these decisions on their children's subsequent health. Estimates of the child health input demand functions and the child health production functions from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey accord with the prediction that optimizing behavior results in higher levels of aggregate child health. Observable parental behaviors respond to the physical developmental status of their children. These parental responses appear to yield large and statistically significant improvements in children's early physiological outcomes. However, because some health inputs choices are not observable, it is impossible to ascertain whether these measured effects are due solely to variations in the observed input choices.