The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) is designed to shift more of the responsibility for poor children from government to parents. To accomplish this goal, the new law requires welfare clients to work and limits the total number of years they can...

Public enforcement of private child support obligations transfers income from non-resident parents (mostly fathers) to resident parents (mostly mothers) or, if the mother is receiving welfare, to the state. Like any other transfer it changes the incentives as it changes the incomes of parents....

Most of the public discussion and academic analyses of nonmarital birthrates focus on women's fertility intentions and welfare. In contrast, we argue that stricter child support enforcement may lower nonmarital birthrates by raising the costs of fatherhood for men. The analysis is based on...