Conference Paper CHILD Annual Conference

The Family Market for Divorced Fathers' Contact with their Children: testing its operation

Authors

Publication date

08 Jul 2005

Abstract

The paper presents a theoretical model of a divorced father's child support and contact with his child, which combines the public good treatment of child-expenditure with a 'family market' for parents' contact time with the child. The model predicts that divorced fathers' contact with their children is affected by a 100% benefit withdrawal rate on child support income in the state benefit system for lone mothers not in employment, Income Support. Panel data from the Families and Children Study indicates that the probability of at least monthly contact by the father with his children is significantly lower for mothers when they receive Income Support, as are child support payments.

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