Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: International Perspectives on Child Support Policy

(Family and Child Policy)

A growing number of children are living with only one of their parents in a wide range of countries. Custodial-parent families—especially single-mother families—are economically vulnerable in most countries. Child Support is a key policy that aims to protect the economic wellbeing of custodial-parent families. This panel includes four papers that examine child support issues in a range of countries that have different approaches and thus may have substantially different effects. The first paper examines the interaction between child support and the income support system in four developed countries. Based on a vignette approach, authors calculate the proportion of each dollar of child support going to the custodial-parent family versus being retained by governments to offset program expenditures across several programs. While there is some variation depending on the characteristics of families within countries, in general the U.S. has the highest proportion of child support going toward cost recovery, followed by New Zealand, then Australia, then the United Kingdom. The second paper investigates the effects of child support on child’s development in the United States. Prior research suggest that informal child support is positively associated with children’s cognitive skills at age 5, but paradoxically formal child support payments are negatively associated with children’s behavior. However, this literature does not account for selection into formal child support. This study builds on this finding by estimating the effects of formal child support on children’s academic achievement and behavior, after accounting for the probability that payment is made formally, using propensity score matching methods. The third paper examines the association of child support and obesity risk among young children in Colombia, using a longitudinal survey (ELCA—Encuesta Longitudinal Colombiana de la Universidad de los Andes) that includes child-parent relationship data, children anthropometric measures as well as detailed information on child support. Preliminary analyses using probit models with extensive controls and propensity score matching techniques suggest that child support is associated with higher odds of obesity for children ages 0 to 5 years old. A similar association has been found for young children in the United States. The mechanisms through which child support may impact child obesity in the context of Colombia will be further investigated. The fourth paper looks at the association between noncustodial father’s contributions and economic well-being in the households formed by mothers and their children after divorce in Uruguay. The authors use a two waves panel survey (ESF—Encuesta de Situaciones Familiares) for these analyses. Based on a difference-in-difference approach they find losses in household income for separated women with children. When noncustodial father’s contributions are considered, no effects of couple break-up on overcrowding and assets are observed. The panel’s discussants are a former federal policy analyst in child support and an academic with expertise in child support policy. This panel discusses implications for cross-national child support policy. We anticipate a rich dialogue about the extent to which these papers provide evidence useful for policy-making in the United States and other country contexts.