Family Law Effects on Divorce, Fertility and Child Investment

Joseph Mullins, Christopher Flinn and Meta Brown
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Meta Brown: Federal Reserve Bank of New York

No 883, 2015 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: In order to assess the child welfare impact of policies governing divorced parenting, such as child support orders, child custody and placement regulations, and marital dissolution standards, one must consider their influence not only on the divorce rate but also on spouses' fertility choices and child investments. We develop a model of marriage, fertility and parenting, with the main goal being the investigation of how policies toward divorce influence outcomes for husbands, wives and children. Estimates of preferences and the technology of child development are disciplined by data on parental time inputs, and simulations based on the model explore the effects of changes in custody allocations and child support standards on outcomes for intact and divided families. Simulations indicate that, while a small decrease in the divorce rate may be induced by a significant child support hike, the major effect of child support levels for both intact and divided households is on the distribution of welfare between parents. Simulated divorce, fertility, test scores and parental welfare all increase with a move toward shared physical placement. Finally, the simulations indicate that children's interests are not necessarily best served by minimizing divorced parenting.

Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-dge
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed015:883

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