H. Elizabeth Peters

Economic incentives for financial and residential independence

In this paper we examine the impact of the resources of children and of their parents on the children’s transition to residential and financial independence. Previous studies of this transition focused primarily on the impact of family structure and parent-child relationships on the decision to leave home, but much less is known about the role of economic factors in the transition to independence. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) for the period 1968–1988, we estimate discrete-hazard models of the probability of achieving residential and financial independence. We find that the child’s wage opportunities and the parents’ income are important determinants of establishing independence. The effect of parental income changes with the child’s age. We also find some evidence that federal tax policy influences the decision to become independent, although the magnitude of this effect is quite small.

Tax Credits, Labor Supply, and Child Care

We explore the impact of the child care tax credit in the U.S. income tax system on the labor supply decisions of married women with young children by incorporating the cost of child care into a structural labor supply model. Using data from the 1986 NLSY, we find that government subsidies to child care increase labor supply substantially. Our policy simulations show that an increase in the value of the child care tax credit (i.e., percent of expenditures subsidized) would have a much larger effect on labor supply than an increase in the annual expenditure limits of the subsidy or making the subsidy refundable.

The Impact of Child Support on Cognitive Outcomes of Young Children

We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child data to address three questions. First, does the receipt of child support have beneficial effects for children with absent fathers apart from increasing income? Second, do the effects of child support differ when child-support awards and payments are made cooperatively as opposed to being court ordered? Third, are any positive effects of child support solely a product of unmeasured differences among fathers and families? Controlling for the socioeconomic characteristics of the child and family, we find some evidence that receipt of child support has a positive impact on children’s cognitive test scores over and above its contribution to total income. However, the effects vary by test, by race, and by reason for Father’s absence. Our results also indicate that the distinction between cooperative and noncooperative awards is important. Finally, our instrumental variables estimates show that the effects of child support persist after we control for unobserved characteristics of fathers and families.

Retrospective Versus Panel Data in Analyzing Lifecycle Events

This paper compares lifecycle data from a retrospective marital history with those derived for the same individuals from panel information, utilizing data from the Young Womens cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Work Experience (NLS) which was initiated in 1968. The results indicate that when a marital event is reported in both sources there is substantial agreement about the date of the event. The errors are systematic and seem to relate to factors that increase the difficulty of recall in retrospective histories. The two data sources seem to do equally well in estimating hazard rate models of first marriage and give qualitatively similar results for hazard rate models of divorce and remarriage.

Public Policies and Father Involvement

SUMMARY The last two decades have been marked by a series of social and policy developments that are changing both how men see themselves as fathers and how policies conceptualize and encourage their involvement in the lives of children and families. This paper focuses on several areas of intersection between research on fathers and policy. The paper first summarizes the research that led to the current political and social interest in fathers. The paper then describes the Fatherhood Initiative, a set of activities that stemmed from a 1995 memorandum from President Clinton. This Initiative led to coordinated efforts by U.S. Federal Statistical agencies to collect better data about fathers. The paper concludes with a discussion of what we know about the effects on father involvement of policies such as welfare reform, child support, work place policies, responsible fatherhood programs, and other fatherhood interventions. Examples of new programs and initiatives on father involvement are also given.

THE QUALITY OF MALE FERTILITY DATA IN MAJOR U.S. SURVEYS

Researchers continue to question fathers’ willingness to report their biological children in surveys and the ability of surveys to adequately represent fathers. To address these concerns, this study evaluates the quality of men’s fertility data in the 1979 and 1997 cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79 and NLSY97) and in the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). Comparing fertility rates in each survey with population rates based on data from Vital Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, we document how the incomplete reporting of births in different surveys varies according to men’s characteristics, including their age, race, marital status, and birth cohort. In addition, we use Monte Carlo simulations based on the NSFG data to demonstrate how birth underreporting biases associations between early parenthood and its antecedents. We find that in the NSFG, roughly four out of five early births were reported; but in the NLSY79 and NLSY97, almost nine-tenths of early births were reported. In all three surveys, incomplete reporting was especially pronounced for nonmarital births. Our results suggest that the quality of male fertility data is strongly linked to survey design and that it has implications for models of early male fertility.

Survey Attrition and Schooling Choices

We use data from three cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience and from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to study the effect of survey attrition on estimates of statistical models of schooling choices. We estimate regressions using data on people who always respond to the surveys (stayers) and on people who miss some surveys (attritors) and test whether the same statistical model describes the behavior of stayers and attritors. In general (with a few exceptions) we find that attrition either has no effect on the regression estimates or only affects the estimates of the intercept (and sometimes the coefficients of birth year dummies) and does not affect estimates of family background slope coefficients.

Can the Family Support Act Put Some Life Back into Deadbeat Dads?: An Analysis of Child-Support Guidelines, Award Rates, and Levels

Federal legislation mandates the use of child-support guidelines to improve adequacy and horizontal equity of child-support awards. Using state guideline formulas, and a sample of women drawn from the NLSY we compare the effects of guidelines on children born out of wedlock versus children whose parents divorced or separated. Our analyses indicate that guidelines increase the probability of child-support awards for children born out of wedlock. Guidelines also reduce variation in awards by eliminating outliers, not by equalizing awards across the entire distribution. Awards for high-income divorced or separated fathers fall substantially below the guideline amount.

Patterns and Determinants of Paternal Child Care During a Child's First Three Years of Life

SUMMARY This paper uses retrospective child care data from the NLSY79 to examine the patterns and determinants of paternal child care during a childs first three years of life. We focus on two-parent families with children whose mothers worked sometime between the childs birth date and the childs third birthday. We find that father care is a fairly stable form of care; the average number of months that father care is used during a year is similar to the duration of other forms of child care. In addition, we find that paternal care is often used in conjunction with other types of child care. We further find that different characteristics predict paternal child care according to the timing and extent of care. For those fathers who are the exclusive providers of child care during the first year of a childs life, the incidence of paternal child care is associated with race or ethnicity and a mothers identification with nontraditional gender roles. In contrast, for those fathers who provide some of total child care during the first three years of a childs life, the incidence of paternal child care is more highly associated with the flexibility of a mothers and fathers work schedule.

Schooling Choices and Demographic Cycles

This paper examines the effect of demographic cycles on schooling choices and the timing of school completion. Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience and from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that men and women born during the upswing of a demographic cycle obtain more schooling and take longer to finish a year of schooling than comparable individuals born during the downswing of a demographic cycle. The patterns that we document are more complex than would be predicted by any of the theoretical models of educational responses to demographic cycles that have been presented in the literature.