Welfare and Child Support Measures in Fragile Families Data (baseline and 1-year surveys)

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Welfare and Child Support Measures in Fragile
Families Data(baseline and 1-year surveys)
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Child Support

• Formal Child Support 3 steps
• Paternity Establishment
• Obtaining an Order
• Getting a Payment
• Informal Child Support
• Between mom and dad

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Formal Child Support Measures

• Paternity establishment
• In or out of hospital
• Formal Agreement (order)
• When and where agreement made
• Amount ordered
• Whether visitation is included
• Formal Payment
• How much
• Arrears
• How much

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Informal Child Support Measures

• Informal Agreement
• When made
• How much agreed to
• Informal Payment
• How much
• In-Kind Contributions from Father
• How often dad buys toys, clothes, medicine,
  child care items (diapers), food/formula, other
  things

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Other CS Measures

• Does mom receive child support from other
  fathers?
• How much
• Dads obligations to children from other mothers
• Does he have order
• Make payments (how much)
• Have arrears (how much)

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Limitations of CS Measures

• Informal support only for those w/o orders (in 18
  cities)
• Resident parents (in 2 cities) not asked about
  formal support
• Cannot construct month by month child support
  history
• Not sure if moms on welfare are reporting actual
  amount received or amount father is paying (to
  state)

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Child Support Outcomes for Mothers w/ Nonmarital
births not Cohabiting w/Father (1-year)
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Welfare Receipt Measures

• Baseline
• Public assistance/welfare/food stamp receipt in
  past 12 months (combined question)
• 1-Year Survey TANF
• Current receipt
• Receipt in past 12 months
• of months
• Amount received last month
• Ever receipt (when and for how long)

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Other TANF Questions

• Baseline knowledge about TANF questions
• Required to do anything for benefits?
• Benefits cut off or reduced?
• Ever think you were eligible?
• Ever apply?
• Result of application?

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Other Types of Public Assistance

• Baseline Survey
• How paid for birth (Medicaid/private/no ins.)
• 1-Year Survey
• Food Stamps ( of months, amount)
• Medicaid
• Other help (unemployment, workers comp)
• SSI
• Public Housing
• Child Care assistance
• WIC
• Apply for EITC?

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Limitations of TANF Measures

• Baseline TANF question combined w/food stamps, so
  cant tell when started receiving
• Very difficult to construct month by month
  history of TANF reliance
• Have to assume that they received the same amount
  each month

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Reliance on Public Assistance for Mothers w/
Nonmarital Births
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Types of Questions We Can Answer

• The effect of Child Support/Welfare Receipt on
• Mom/dads labor supply
• Father/child contact
• Parents relationship
• Moms welfare participation
• Child well-being
• Economic hardship
• Family formation/marriage
• The determinants of Child Support/Welfare Receipt
• Explaining variation in Child Support/Welfare
  Receipt

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TANF Reliance at 1-year by City (mothers
w/nonmarital births)
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Proportion of Mothers w/ Order by City
(nonmarital births, not residing with father)
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Use FF Measures to Construct City-Level Measures

• Example 1 Paternity Establishment
• Construct city-level aggregate measures
• Purge of city compositional differences
• Example 2 Welfare generosity
• Construct city-level sanction measures
• Use lagged measures