Volume 24, Number 4 (Fall) 1989
Graham, John W. and Andrea H. Beller. 1989. "The Effect of Child Support Payments on the Labor Supply of Female Family Heads: An Econometric Analysis." Journal of Human Resources 24(4):664-688.
Recent Census Bureau statistics show that women who receive child support payments have higher earnings and work longer hours than women who do not. Does this suggest that child support - unlike all other nonwage income - does not deter work effort, or are women who receive it simply different? We use 1979/1982 CPS data on divorced or separated women to estimate the determinants of hours worked when AFDC participation and child support are endogenous. We find evidence of unobservable differences between women who receive child support and those who do not. Controlling for these, both child support and other nonwage income appear to reduce hours worked, but the deterrent effect of child support is considerably less.
John W, Graham is an associate professor of economics at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey and an NBER research associate. Andrea H. Beller is an associate professor in the Division of Family and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois. This research was supported in part by grant #RO1 HD19350 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). However, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the NICHD.
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