Child Support Policy Research Publications
Reports
IRP Discussion Papers and Reprints
Other Publications
The documents included here consist of reports written under contract to the
state of Wisconsin and research papers written by IRP-affiliated faculty and
IRP staff in the various child support projects that IRP has fielded over many
years.
The reports draw upon a wide range of county, state, and national data. These
include IRP data from the Wisconsin Court Record
Demonstration Project and the Wisconsin
Child Support Demonstration Evaluation (CSDE); administrative data from
the State of Wisconsin, such as the State's child support accounting system;
and national data on child support enforcement policies and programs such as
that available from the Office
of Child Support Enforcement in
the Department of Health and Human Services. Full texts of many reports are
posted on this Web page, below; reports listed here, but not posted in full,
may be available upon request.
Researchers associated with IRP have conducted a wide range of studies on child support issues. Much of this research is available in IRP Discussion Papers, Reprints, or Special Reports. Information about these publications, and full texts of many of them, can be retrieved through keyword and author searches using the IRP Publications Database.
Some datasets for IRP child support projects are publicly
available. Other IRP-managed data may be available upon request from
the archives manager, Maggie Darby at mdarby@ssc.wisc.edu.
Reports and other publications produced as part of the CSDE are available
at the CSDE Publications page.
Reports
The Regularity of Child Support and Its Contribution to the Regularity of Income
Yoonsook Ha, Maria Cancian, and Daniel R. Meyer, April 2007
Child support is a potentially important income source for a broad set of
families. A substantial amount of research has been conducted on the factors
associated with the amount of child support paid and received. But
for child support to be most effective at helping custodial families meet their
expenses, the regularity of support may be important as well. This
paper builds on previous analyses and focuses on custodial mothers rather than
noncustodial fathers and on receipts, not payments, but it explicitly separates
payments from different fathers to provide a more informative measure of regularity.
Moreover, it adds a new set of analyses, comparing the extent of regularity
of child support to that of several other income sources and to total income,
and explicitly examining whether child support is exacerbating or smoothing
the irregularity of custodial mothers’ total income package.
Estimating the Costs of Children: Theoretical Considerations Related to Transitions to Adulthood and the Valuation of Parental Time for Developing Child Support Guidelines
Ingrid Rothe and Lawrence M. Berger, April 2007
Wisconsin and many other states use a "continuity of expenditures model" in
setting child support policy. The model is based on the concept that children
in divorced or never-married families should benefit from expenditures that
would have been made on their behalf had they coresided with both of their
parents. This report is intended to inform the determination of reasonable
child support order policy guidelines using that framework by estimating
the costs of children and by evaluating alternative models and theories about
how intact, two-parent families allocate resources on behalf of their children.
The report makes no firm recommendations about how evolving research on the
costs of raising children should affect child support policy, but instead
summarizes the research and suggests possible policy implications.
Child Support Income and Copayments in the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program
Steven T. Cook, March 2007
The Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program provides assistance to low-income
families who need help with child care in order to work. Families must meet
both financial and nonfinancial eligibility criteria to participate and are
expected to pay part of the cost of the child care in the form of copayments
that are calculated according to a sliding scale. Currently, child and family
support payments are not counted as income when determining financial eligibility
or expected copayment amounts. This report estimates the fiscal effect of considering
child and family support as income for purposes of calculating Wisconsin Shares
copayment amounts, including the effect on families that would retain eligibility
but experience higher copayments.
Wisconsin's 2004 Shared-Physical-Placement
Guidelines: Their Use and Implications in Divorce Cases
Patricia Brown and Maria Cancian, March 2007
Using Wisconsin Court Record Data (CRD) that IRP has collected in 21 Wisconsin
counties, this report studies differences in child support orders and time-share
placement before and after significant changes were made to the Wisconsin child
support guidelines in January 2004. The new guidelines generally include lower
child support orders at lower levels of time-share, and higher child support
orders at or near the level of equal shared placement. The authors analyze
whether there is evidence that the changes influence parents' behavior and
divorce-case final judgments. They find continued growth in shared placement
in divorce cases, and declines in both sole-mother and sole-father placement;
a greater increase in unequal shared-placement cases; and a long-term trend
of declining litigation in divorces cases, in all categories except those with
unequal shared placement. The financial incentives introduced by the 2004 guidelines
have countervailing effects on the parents with greater and lesser time placement.
Characteristics of Shared-Placement Child Support Formulas Used in the Fifty States
Patricia Brown and Tonya Brito, March 2007
In divorce and paternity cases where separated parents share time with the
child equally, where responsibilities for costs of raising the child are shared
equally, and where incomes of the parents are similar, most persons would agree
that no child support payment is necessary. Conversely, when the time spent
with parents is not equal, the incomes of the parents are not equal, or the
responsibilities for costs are not equal, most child support policymakers would
agree that an order of child support is appropriate. Under these circumstances,
however, child support guidelines are needed because it is not intuitively
obvious what an equitable child support order would be. This report is an update
of a report by Melli and Brown (1994) that explored the use of guidelines in
shared placement cases in the early 1990s. In this paper we focus primarily
on the mathematics of the various formulas. The paper concludes by recommending
a formula which is not difficult to understand and which allows lesser-time
parents to sometimes become the child support payee.
Eligibility for Child Care Subsidies of Parents with Child Support Income
Emma Caspar and Steven T. Cook, November 2006
The Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program provides assistance to low-income
families that need help with child care in order to work. Families must meet
both financial and non-financial eligibility criteria to participate. Currently,
child and family support payments are not counted as income when determining
financial eligibility. In this report, we assess the extent to which families
participating in the child care subsidy program would be disqualified, were
support income considered in calculating eligibility and benefit levels.
The Stability of Child Support Orders
Yoonsook Ha, Daniel R. Meyer, and Maria Cancian, December 2006
Using data mainly drawn from the Kids Information Data System, the report
explores the following three questions: (1) How often do noncustodial parents' earnings
change over a five-year period? (2) To what extent do child support orders
change, and are these changes related to the changes in earnings? (3) Do changes
in payments occur over this five-year period, and if so, are the changes linked
to changes in earnings, orders or both? Findings suggest that a substantial
proportion of fathers experience large changes in earnings in this five-year
period; that relatively few of the cases with large changes in earnings have
a large change in the amount of child support owed; and that both changes in
earnings and changes in the amount of child support orders are strong predictors
of changes in payments.
Alternative Approaches to Child Support Policy in the Context of Multiple-Partner Fertility
Maria Cancian and Daniel R. Meyer, December 2006
This report examines possible alternative child support policy approaches
in cases where the mother and/or father have children with other partners,
simulating the results of different policy regimes on outcomes for families.
One purpose of the report is to examine the extent of complications in Wisconsin
child support cases that are caused by multiple-partner fertility, to see whether
a systematic approach to child support in such complicated cases is called
for.
Review of Child Support Policies for Incarcerated Payers
Jennifer L. Noyes, December 2006
This report explores the emerging set of concerns about incarcerated noncustodial
parents and whether they should be held to the terms of child support orders
given their change in circumstances. The report provides background information
about the extent to which NCPs are incarcerated, an outline of major policy
and practice options under consideration nationwide, examples of the policies
and practices of six states, reviews of the extent to which the outcomes of
current policies have been evaluated, and an outline of the implications of
the information provided.
Review of Child Support Policies for Multiple Family Obligations: Five Case Studies
Emma Caspar, September 2006
This report describes the child support policies of five states in cases where
one or both parents has had children with two or more partners. The collected
information also informs the simulation models used in a related report on
the outcomes of current and potential alternative policies for families in
Wisconsin. The paper examines how five states' child support policies address
the question "When a parent has a second family, should the obligation to the
first family be reduced, do prior-born children take precedence, or should
all children be treated equally?" The five locations included in this study
are: North Dakota, the District of Columbia, Colorado, New Jersey, and Montana.
The Use of Wisconsin's Child Support
Guidelines: Evidence from 2000 through 2003
Emma Caspar, Ingrid Rothe, and Anat Yom-Tov, July 2006
This report examines child support orders in Wisconsin to determine if they are consistent with the percentage-expressed standard that should be used to set child support orders in Wisconsin. Using a sample of child support cases that entered the Wisconsin family court system, the researchers' findings were mixed. In about 28 percent of the cases, there was no order; 25 percent were below the guidelines; 39 percent are consistent with the guidelines; and 7 percent are above the guidelines.
Recent Trends in Children's
Placement Arrangements in Divorce and Paternity Cases in Wisconsin
Steven T. Cook and Patricia Brown, May 2006
Using a sample of cases from 21 counties in the Wisconsin Court Record Data
(CRD), this report analyzes the change over time of child placement in divorce
and paternity cases. The researchers found that, although mother sole placement
remains the most common arrangement for physical placement of children following
divorce, growth in the use of shared mother-father placement is continuing.
Divorced Wisconsin Families with Shared Child Placements
Patricia Brown, Eun Hee Joung, and Lawrence M. Berger, February 2006
Using Wisconsin Court Record data, this report describes the living arrangements
of children in Wisconsin families with (equal and unequal) shared physical
placements following their parents' divorce, and examines the stability of
those placements during the three years after the divorce.
The Father-Child Relationship in Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment Cases
Patricia R. Brown, February 2006
Using Wisconsin Court Record data, this report examines the effect of voluntarily
acknowledged paternity on the relationship between fathers and their nonmarital
children in the early years of the child's life. Related
report: Patricia R.
Brown, Steven T. Cook, and Lynn Wimer, Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment,
IRP DP1302-05.
Alternative Cost-of-Living Adjustments to Child Support Orders: A Simulation Using Wisconsin Orders
Ingrid E. Rothe, September 2004
This report considers the potential effects of implementing an automatic cost-of-living
adjustment (COLA) to modify child support awards in Wisconsin. The first half
of the report-based primarily on literature reviews, analysis of state child
support legislation, and discussion with officials in other states-presents
alternative strategies for automated updating of orders that have been contemplated
or tried elsewhere. Most of the material in the first half of the report appeared
in the author's earlier report, "Alternative Cost-of-Living Adjustments
to Child Support Orders," September 2003. The second half of the report
analyzes the potential impacts of implementing one of the alternative COLA
adjustments in Wisconsin.
Selected Child Support
Enforcement Tools: How Are They Used in Wisconsin?
Ingrid E. Rothe, Yoonsook Ha, and Marya Sosulski, August 2004
As part of changes to the child support enforcement system over the past 20
years, state have implemented an expanded set of tools designed to improve
enforcement. This paper uses information from survey and administrative data
in Wisconsin to better understand how the new techniques are implemented by
county child support agencies and whether they contribute to increased collections.
Officials in four county child support agencies (Chippewa, Eu Claire, Racine,
and Winnebago) were interviewed; the counties exhibited marked differences
in organization of the enforcement process. Analysis focused on three types
of enforcement actions that were more frequently utilized: enforcement letters,
contempt hearings, and Notice of Lien and Credit Bureau Reporting. Use of these
tools increased substantially in 2000. The most effective method of initiating
payment, in cases of nonsupport, was through wage withholding.
A two-page summary accompanies
this report. (Also available
in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 2 pp.)
(pdf, text, 43 pp.; summary, 2 pp.)
Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment
Patricia R. Brown, Steven T. Cook, and Lynn Wimer, July 2004
[Issued as IRP DP 1302-05, May 2005]
Since the mid-1990s the state of Wisconsin has operated a voluntary paternity
acknowledgment process that allows the fathers of nonmarital children born
in the state to voluntarily acknowledge their paternity by signing a notarized
form, instead of going through a judicial hearing. This report examines the
relationship between the use of paternity acknowledgment and two measures of
fathers' subsequent participation in the responsibilities of child-rearing:
paying child support and having the children live with them. Voluntary paternity
acknowledgment, as compared to adjudicated paternity, is associated with a
lower incidence of child support orders, higher likelihood of payment when
an order exists, and a greater likelihood of shared child placement.
A summary accompanies
this report. (Also available
in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 1 pp.)
(pdf, text, 62 pp.; summary, 1 p.)
The Importance of Child Support
for Low-Income Families
Maria Cancian, Daniel R. Meyer, and Hwa-Ok Park, September 2003
This report, prepared for the Bureau of Child Support, Wisconsin Department
of Workforce Development, uses Wisconsin survey data from the Child Support
Demonstration Evaluation to assess the importance of child support for mothers
entering the state's Wisconsin Works (W-2) program in 1997-98, its first year.
It compares these mothers with a broader group of low-income families from
Wisconsin and other states that form part of the National Survey of America's
Families (NSAF). Both W-2 participants and those from the NSAF sample experienced
consistent improvements in child support over time and across the income distribution,
suggesting that a continued focus on improving the effectiveness of the child
support system can make a major contribution to the well-being of vulnerable
families with children. 14 pp., 9 figs., 3 tables.
A two-page summary accompanies
this report. (Also available in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 2 pp.)
Child Support Orders and
Payments: Do Lower Orders Result in Higher Payments?
M-C. Hu and D. Meyer, March 2003
Explores the relationships between income, the amount of child support owed,
and the amount of child support paid, using two data sets from Wisconsin:
the Wisconsin Court Record Database and the Kids Information Data System (KIDS).
There is no evidence to suggest that orders that are "too high" discourage
those who owe child support and will result in lower payments. In general,
the authors find, fathers with higher orders make higher payments in the
first year after the order. (pdf, text, 26 pp.; summary,
2 pp.)
Forgiveness of State-Owed Child Support Arrears
Judi Bartfeld, February 2003
Child support arrears owed by noncustodial parents, and their possible effects
on child support agencies, parents, and children are an issue of increasing
policy concern. This report provides an overview of the magnitude of arrears,
the factors that contribute, and the problems stemming from high arrears, and
considers one general policy approach to reducing arrears that have already
accrued, the forgiveness of arrears owed to the state. (pdf, 43 pp., SR
84)
Medical Support Orders:
Potential Fiscal Effects of Matching Wisconsin Insurance and Child Support Data
Thomas Kaplan and Ingrid Rothe, January 2003
This report explores the practicality and the potential savings to the state
from identifying Wisconsin children who have a noncustodial parent with access
to affordable health insurance that provides coverage for dependents, and to
assure that such children are covered under that plan. The investigation determined
that some children now covered by the Wisconsin Medicaid program have noncustodial
parents who have health insurance and that savings would be possible if those
insurance carriers could be identified and billed as a result of routine data
matching. 2003. (Also available
in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, text, 8 pp.)
Children's Living Arrangements in Divorced Wisconsin
Families with Shared Placement
M. Krecker, P. Brown, M. Melli, and L. Wimer, September 2002 (revised
June 2003)
This report sheds new light on the stability of shared physical placement after
a divorce and provides useful evidence on the issues raised in the 1992 book,
Dividing the Child, by Maccoby and Mnookin. (pdf, 64 pp., SR 83)
Use of Wisconsin's Child Support Guidelines in Shared Placement Cases
Steven T. Cook, August 2002
This report examines the use of the guidelines in shared placement cases,
using data from the Wisconsin Court Record Database for two time periods: (1)
under the September 1987 standard and (2) under the March 1995 standard. The
analysis is limited to divorced parents, because shared placement appeared
to be extremely uncommon in paternity cases. The reports estimate compliance
with the guidelines for a wide variety of subgroups-by age and income of either
parent, by number, sex, and age of children, by length of marriage, by residential
location. One of the purposes of the 1995 revision was to address the absence
of guidelines in cases where placement is equally shared between the parents,
which is now by far the most common outcome in custody cases. Such cases were
still much more likely to have no order, or to have orders below the guideline,
than were unequal shared cases.
A summary accompanies
this report. (Also available
in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 1 pp.)
(pdf, text, 24 pp.; summary, 1 p.)
Placement Outcomes for Children of Divorce in Wisconsin
Maria Cancian, Judith Cassetty, Steven T. Cook, and Daniel R. Meyer, January 2002
In considering where children should live after their parents divorce, state
law formerly gave explicit preference to the mother. This gender preference
has now been removed from law in all states, and shared placement has become
more common. In Wisconsin, shared placement became presumptive as of May 2000.
This research examines whether these laws are having an effect by examining
physical placement outcomes among Wisconsin divorces from 1996 to 1998, compared
to divorces coming to court from 1990 to 1993. Between the earlier and later
periods, the analysis found a clear move away from mother sole placement, which
declined from 74.6 percent to 63.7 percent of cases. Shared placement, both
equal and unequal, more than doubled over these 5-6 years. Placement outcomes
varied dramatically only when we examined legal representation-whether only
one parent (and which parent), both, or neither were represented.
A two-page summary accompanies
this report. (Also available
in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 2 pp.)
(pdf, text, 20 pp.; summary, 2 pp.)
Estimates of Family Expenditures
for Children: A Review of the Literature
I. Rothe, J. Cassetty, and E. Boehnen, April 2001
This report reviews the existing literature regarding estimates of expenditures
for children, discusses the implications for Wisconsin's standard, and identifies
areas where future research may be required. (pdf, 51 pp.)
Child Support Disregard Policies and Program Outcomes
J. Cassetty, M. Cancian, and D. Meyer, 2001
This report explores the effects of various levels of disregards on IV-D paternity
establishment and child support collections across all states.
The Importance of Child Support in Leavers' Post-Welfare Incomes
M. Cancian, D. Meyer, and C. White, 2000
This report provides new information on the role of child support in contributing
to the incomes of women who have left welfare.
Joint Legal Custody and Child Support Payments
J. Seltzer and V. Maralani, 2000
This report addresses the question: Does joint legal custody increase child
support payments? It describes differences in formal child support payments
for those with and without joint legal custody among divorce cases. It examines
legal custody differences through the sixth year after divorce, to assess
whether any economic benefits of joint legal custody endure through a significant
part of childhood.
Child Support and the W-2 Self-Sufficiency Ladder: Patterns and Implications
M. Cancian and D. Meyer, 1999
This report focuses on the relationship between child support and movement
up the self-sufficiency employment ladder by mothers in the W-2 program.
IRP Discussion Papers and Reprints
Below we list only Discussion Papers issued in 2005. There exist many earlier IRP Discussion Papers and Reprints dealing with child support. They can be identified, and full texts of many can be retrieved, through the IRP Publications Database.
Can Administrative Data on Child Support Be Used to Improve the EITC?
Evidence from Wisconsin
V. Joseph Hotz and John Karl Scholz, November 2005 (DP
1310-05)
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the largest cash or near-cash U.S. antipoverty program, but a large fraction of its payments appear to go to taxpayers who are not eligible for the credit. The most common problem has been that EITC-qualifying children failed to live for at least six months with the taxpayer claiming the child. The 1997 and 2001 federal budget bills thus mandated use of the Federal Case Registry of child support orders (FCR) to improve the accuracy of the child support and tax systems. This paper examines the effects of these changes on EITC compliance and participation.
Multiple-Partner Fertility: Incidence and Implications for Child Support Policy
D. R. Meyer, M. Cancian, and S. Cook, May 2005 (DP
1300-05)
The article shows that family complexity resulting from multiple-partner fertility is quite common, and provides the first comprehensive documentation of levels of family complexity among a broad sample of welfare recipients. Multiple-partner fertility has important implications for understanding child support outcomes and for designing and evaluating welfare and family policy.
Child Support in the United States: An Uncertain and Irregular Income Source?
M. Cancian and D. R. Meyer, April 2005 (DP
1298-05)
The U.S. emphasis on private rather than public responsibility for the support
of children raises several questions concerning the adequacy and distribution
of child support. Using detailed administrative records, the authors analyze
child support receipts Wisconsin from 2000 to 2003. They find that most mothers
with child support orders receive support, but that the amount received varies
substantially from year to year and there is substantial instability within
years.
Knowledge of Child Support Policy Rules: How Little We Know
M. Cancian, D. R. Meyer, and K. Nam, April 2005 (DP
1297-05)
The authors find that participants in a Wisconsin child support and welfare
demonstration have very little knowledge about child support policy rules.
Results suggest that people tend to learn policy rules by experience; there
is less consistent support for knowledge being primarily imparted through interactions
with caseworkers. The article also discusses the implications of this ignorance
for policy evaluations.
Other Publications
Focus Vol. 21:1, Spring 2000, is a
special issue devoted entirely to research on child support. Articles cover
a number of policy-related topics, among them the development, scope, and consequences
of state and federal enforcement efforts, and whether enforcement is likely
to make a difference in the relationship between absent parents and their children.
Also covered are results of experimental efforts to improve the capacity of
absent, low-income fathers to support their children, and perspectives on child
support policy in England and Europe as compared to U.S. policies.
Fathers Under Fire: The
Revolution in Child Support Enforcement
Irwin Garfinkel, Sara S. McLanahan, Daniel R. Meyer, and Judith A. Seltzer,
editors
(New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1998.)
Much of the uncertainty surrounding child support policies has stemmed from
a lack of hard data on nonresident fathers. Fathers under Fire presents a full
body of information on the financial and social circumstances of these men.
Social scientists and legal scholars explore the underlying issues of child
support and the potential risks and benefits of stronger enforcement policies.
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