This retrospective reviews the policies that affect the fertility of American women, both policies designed to alter fertility intentionally as well as those that change childbearing unintentionally. Becker's seminal work on the economics of fertility serves as the theoretical foundation for this literature. After describing Becker's economic…

This brief examines the relationship between increased child support enforcement and frequency of visitation between children and their nonresident fathers. Data come from the 1997 and 1999 National Survey of America's Families. The study emphasizes children of single mothers because children in such households face the greatest risk of long-term…

Asserts that instead of putting children at risk through more costly and politically problematic child support enforcement strategies, policymakers should reinforce rather than undermine the social ideal of marriage. Discusses the logic of shotgun weddings, the results of no-fault divorces, punishment of innocent fathers by harsh child support…

Some scholars have suggested that a negative consequence of strengthening child support enforcement is to encourage fathers to shift from regular sector to underground employment. We employ data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to investigate the relationship between the strength of child support enforcement (CSE) and levels of…

Increasing the probability of paying child support, in addition to increasing resources available for investment in children, also may alter the incentives faced by men to have children out of wedlock. We find that strengthening child support enforcement leads men to have fewer out-of-wedlock births and among those who do become fathers, to do so…

The expansion of child support enforcement system has increased the child-support receipt rates of never-married and previously married mothers. The studies reveal that if this system were not implemented, the child-support rates would be 1-9 percentage points lower.

This report examines why the child support system breaks down for so many low-income families, presenting information from interviews with unmarried mothers and fathers nationwide. Four chapters focus on: (1) "Introduction" (child support policy in California and nationwide); (2) "The National and California Child Support…

The child support reform provisions within the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) have been markedly successful in improving child support enforcement efforts. Child support is an important part of the mix of supports necessary to assist welfare recipients to make the transition to work and…

These brochures explain briefly the importance of establishing paternity for unwed mothers. By establishing paternity and enforcing child support orders, fathers can be required to help raise their child legally and financially. The brochures consist of two separate sheets. "For Your Child's Sake...Establish Paternity" presents several…

This paper summarizes changes in key elements of welfare policy and in closely related policies on child support enforcement and sex education and family planning programs. Drawing on a conceptual framework that highlights how incentives created by public policy can affect demographic behaviors, the paper concludes that, as Congress intended,…

Children's poverty rate in the United States, over 20%, exceeds that of all industrialized nations except Australia. This interdisciplinary book examines the impact of changing public policies on children. Section 1 gives a current and historical overview of children in poverty. Sections 2 through 5 address arenas of possible change from policy…