A Standardized Net Income Shares Model to Develop Basic Child Support Guidelines

Research regarding child support typically focuses on the effects of child support awards and its underlying principles within child support models. However, researchers have invested little effort in the analysis of child support guideline comparisons or in the development of analyses to determine whether state adopted guidelines seem reasonable based on state-specific macroeconomic variables. This analysis intends to develop a model to determine the reasonableness of child support guidelines for states that use the income shares method based on the net income of both parents. Further, it intends to suggest that the development of a standard model is possible and, to a certain extent, needed, to obtain interstate uniformity. Findings suggest that the implementation of such a model could lead to more equitable and uniform basic child support awards