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Author: Bitler, Marianne Parcella

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1.	Bitler, Marianne Parcella
1.	Fathers' Time vs. Fathers' Money: Effects of the Child Support Enforcement System Working Paper, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, July 2000 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: RAND Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Child Support; Fathers, Absence; Fathers, Involvement; Fathers, Presence; Household Composition; Time Use; Welfare Children's attainments in later life are tied to a variety of inputs that come from within the family. These inputs increasingly come from absent fathers who can contribute both money and time to their children. Government actions to collect child support from absent fathers could lead them to spend more time with their children or it could cause them to substitute money for time. Aggressive enforcement may also reduce contact with fathers who are afraid of being targeted for sanctions. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I find that more aggressive enforcement at the state level reduces father-child contact as measured by number of visits and physical distance. Instrumental variables estimates suggest that time and money are substitutes for fathers affected by these child support enforcement mechanisms.
	Bibliography Citation Bitler, Marianne Parcella. "Fathers' Time vs. Fathers' Money: Effects of the Child Support Enforcement System." Working Paper, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, July 2000.

2.	Bitler, Marianne Parcella
2.	Microeconomics of the Family: Three Essays Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998. Also: http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/9827 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Keyword(s): Child Support; Crime; Family Studies; Fathers and Children; Fathers, Absence; Medicaid/Medicare; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Variables, Instrumental In this dissertation, I examine the effects of several different government programs on families. The first two chapters focus on different effects of the United States child support enforcement system. The third chapter considers the effects of the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children on both pregnancy outcomes for women and developmental outcomes for children. In chapter one, I examine the effects of the child support enforcement system on absent fathers' allocations of time and money to their children. Children's outcomes in later life are related to a variety of inputs that come from within the family. These inputs increasingly come from absent fathers who can contribute both money and time to their children. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I find that more aggressive enforcement at the state level reduces father-child contact as measured by number of visits and physical distance. Instrumental variables estimates suggest that time and money are substitutes for fathers affected by these child support enforcement mechanisms. In chapter two, I examine the effects of the child support enforcement system on non-custodial fathers' labor supply. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and instrumental variable techniques, I find evidence of both a positive effect of paying any child support on hours of work and of each additional dollar of child support paid on hours of work. These results are consistent with my findings in chapter one--namely that sate (sic) efforts to collect missing child support reduce the time fathers spend with their children. Chapter two suggests that fathers instead may be working more to comply with child support order. Chapter three, co-authored with Janet Currie and Duncan Thomas of the University of California at Los Angeles, examines the effects of the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), on both pregnancy outcomes for women and developmental outcomes for children. Previous studies have found extensive evidence of positive effects of WIC on a variety of pregnancy outcomes, but few have found any long-lasting evidence of WIC's effects on young children. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find that WIC has positive but small effects on some pregnancy outcomes and on some cognitive test scores and on Medicaid and Food Stamp use in family fixed-effect specifications. However, instrumental variables estimates suggest that WIC has a negative effect on one motor skill test score and no effect on other test scores. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries)
	Bibliography Citation Bitler, Marianne Parcella. Microeconomics of the Family: Three Essays. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998..

3.	Bitler, Marianne Parcella Currie, Janet
3.	The Impact of the WIC Program on Pregnancy, Infant, and Child Outcomes Presented: Minneapolis, MN, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2003 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Birth Outcomes; Child Health; Infants; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Welfare Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, infants and Children (the WIC program) provides direct nutritional supplements and nutritional advice to pregnant, postpartum and lactating women, infants and children who are income eligible and are deemed to be nutritionally-at-risk. Numerous studies have concluded that the WIC program is beneficial for infants. However, these studies have been criticized for failing to control adequately for unobserved characteristics of mothers that might explain both WIC participation and better birth outcomes. Using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we investigate whether previous findings about the effect of WIC on infant and pregnancy outcomes hold in more recent data. We also extend the fairly limited existing literature on children's outcomes. We use both a fixed-effects and an instrumental-variables strategy to correct our estimates for possible positive selection into the WIC program.
	Bibliography Citation Bitler, Marianne Parcella and Janet Currie. "The Impact of the WIC Program on Pregnancy, Infant, and Child Outcomes." Presented: Minneapolis, MN, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2003.

4.	Bitler, Marianne Parcella Currie, Janet Thomas, Duncan
4.	The Effects of WIC on Children's Outcomes Working Paper, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, October 2001 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: RAND Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Birthweight; Breastfeeding; Child Health; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Food Stamps (see Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program); Head Start; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Infants; Medicaid/Medicare; Memory for Digit Span (WISC) - also see Digit Span; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Mothers, Behavior; Mothers, Health; Motor and Social Development (MSD); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Welfare This paper examines the effect of the Special Supplement Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Previous studies have found extensive evidence of positive effects of WIC on a variety of pregnancy outcomes, yet few have found any longer lasting evidence of the effect of WIC on young children. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find evidence that WIC may have positive but small effects on some pregnancy outcomes and on some cognitive test scores and on Medicaid and Food Stamp use in regressions with family fixed effects. However, in instrumental variables analysis, WIC has a negative effect on one motor skill test and no effect in other test scores.
	Bibliography Citation Bitler, Marianne Parcella, Janet Currie and Duncan Thomas. "The Effects of WIC on Children's Outcomes." Working Paper, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, October 2001.

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