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Title: Deadbeat Dads
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Beauchamp, Andrew Sanzenbacher, Geoffrey Seitz, Shannon Skira, Meghan |
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Deadbeat Dads Boston College Working Papers in Economics No. 859, Department of Economics, Boston College, July 2014 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Boston College Keyword(s): Child Support; Childbearing, Premarital/Nonmarital; Earnings; Fatherhood; Fathers, Absence; Racial Differences Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Why do some men father children outside of marriage but not provide support? Why are some single women willing to have children outside of marriage when they receive little or no support from unmarried fathers? Why is this behavior especially common among blacks? To shed light on these questions, we develop and estimate a dynamic equilibrium model of marriage, employment, fertility, and child support. We consider the extent to which low earnings and a shortage of single men relative to single women among blacks can explain the prevalence of deadbeat dads and non-marital childbearing. We estimate the model by indirect inference using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. We simulate three distinct counterfactual policy environments: perfect child support enforcement, eliminating the black-white earnings gap, and equalizing black-white population supplies (and therefore gender ratios). We find perfect enforcement reduces non-marital childbearing dramatically, particularly among blacks; over time it translates into many fewer couples living with children from past relationships, and therefore less deadbeat fatherhood. Eliminating the black-white earnings gap reduces the marriage rate difference between blacks and whites by 29 to 43 percent; black child poverty rates fall by nearly 40 percent. Finally equalizing gender ratios has little effect on racial differences in marriage and fertility. |
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Bibliography Citation
Beauchamp, Andrew, Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, Shannon Seitz and Meghan Skira. "Deadbeat Dads." Boston College Working Papers in Economics No. 859, Department of Economics, Boston College, July 2014. |