PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Chien-Chung Huang AU - Irwin Garfinkel AU - Jane Waldfogel TI - Child Support Enforcement and Welfare Caseloads AID - 10.3368/jhr.XXXIX.1.108 DP - 2004 Jan 01 TA - Journal of Human Resources PG - 108--134 VI - XXXIX IP - 1 4099 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXIX/1/108.short 4100 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXIX/1/108.full SO - J Hum Resour2004 Jan 01; XXXIX AB - Although there is a large body of research devoted to the issue of the determinants of welfare caseloads, none of these studies has incorporated the effects of child support enforcement (CSE). We employ annual state panel data from 1980 to 1999 and find that states with more effective CSE have significantly lower welfare caseloads. The improvement in CSE over this period reduces welfare caseloads by about 9 percent in 1999. We also discover that individual child support variables may not be good indicators of state CSE vigor and that a CSE index that includes multiple dimensions of CSE is more likely to capture the multiplicative functions of CSE.