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Source: Department of Economics, Boston College
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Beauchamp, Andrew
Sanzenbacher, Geoffrey
Seitz, Shannon
Skira, Meghan
Deadbeat Dads
Boston College Working Papers in Economics No. 859, Department of Economics, Boston College, July 2014
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Boston College
Keyword(s): Child Support; Childbearing, Premarital/Nonmarital; Earnings; Fatherhood; Fathers, Absence; Racial Differences

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Why do some men father children outside of marriage but not provide support? Why are some single women willing to have children outside of marriage when they receive little or no support from unmarried fathers? Why is this behavior especially common among blacks? To shed light on these questions, we develop and estimate a dynamic equilibrium model of marriage, employment, fertility, and child support. We consider the extent to which low earnings and a shortage of single men relative to single women among blacks can explain the prevalence of deadbeat dads and non-marital childbearing. We estimate the model by indirect inference using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. We simulate three distinct counterfactual policy environments: perfect child support enforcement, eliminating the black-white earnings gap, and equalizing black-white population supplies (and therefore gender ratios). We find perfect enforcement reduces non-marital childbearing dramatically, particularly among blacks; over time it translates into many fewer couples living with children from past relationships, and therefore less deadbeat fatherhood. Eliminating the black-white earnings gap reduces the marriage rate difference between blacks and whites by 29 to 43 percent; black child poverty rates fall by nearly 40 percent. Finally equalizing gender ratios has little effect on racial differences in marriage and fertility.
Bibliography Citation
Beauchamp, Andrew, Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, Shannon Seitz and Meghan Skira. "Deadbeat Dads." Boston College Working Papers in Economics No. 859, Department of Economics, Boston College, July 2014.
2. Chan, Stacey
Unintended Policy Effects and Youth Crime
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, Boston College, 2013.
Also: https://dlib.bc.edu/islandora/object/bc-ir:101345
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Boston College
Keyword(s): Crime; Geocoded Data; Minimum Wage; State-Level Data/Policy

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The second chapter (co-authored with Drew Beauchamp) investigates how increases in the minimum wage impact the criminal behavior of affected workers. A growing body of empirical evidence indicates that increases in the minimum wage have a displacement effect on low-skilled workers. We use detailed panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort to examine the effect of increases in the minimum wage on self-reported criminal activity and test the employment-crime substitution hypothesis. Exploiting changes in state and federal minimum wage laws from 1997 to 2010, we find that workers who are affected by a change in the minimum wage are more likely to become idle and unemployed. Further, there is an increase of property theft among both the unemployed and employed, suggesting that substitution between employment and crime is stronger than the income effect. These findings have implications for policy regarding both the low-wage labor market and criminal activity.
Bibliography Citation
Chan, Stacey. Unintended Policy Effects and Youth Crime. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, Boston College, 2013..