RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Child Support Enforcement and Welfare Caseloads
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 108
OP 134
DO 10.3368/jhr.XXXIX.1.108
VO XXXIX
IS 1
A1 Chien-Chung Huang
A1 Irwin Garfinkel
A1 Jane Waldfogel
YR 2004
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXIX/1/108.abstract
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.