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Abstract Child support may merely reshuffle poverty, reducing child poverty among families who receive it at the expense of the economic well-being of children living with a nonresident parent. Our study examines child support's effects on child poverty, considering those who pay child support and those who receive child support, and doing so in Colombia and the United States (U.S.). We use data from the Colombian Longitudinal Survey (N = 13,036) and the U.S. Current Population Survey (N = 53,480). Our findings show that the antipoverty effectiveness of child support among resident parent families is larger in Colombia than in the U.S. Child support payments do increase child poverty among children living in payer families in both countries, but the effects are fairly small. In our base models, 6%–9% of children in nonresident parent families are falling into poverty after child support payments are transferred to other families. Overall, child support receipts decrease poverty to a greater extent than child support payments increase it among children. Highlights • We study child poverty and child support in Colombia and the U.S. • Antipoverty effectiveness of child support is higher in Colombia than the U.S. • Child support payments increase poverty somewhat among children in payer families • Results are robust to different methods [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the extent to which child support is helping custodial-mother families move out of poverty or move closer to the poverty line in Colombia. Data come from the 2008 Quality of Life Survey, which provides information for 3,359 custodial-mother families. We calculate poverty rates and poverty gaps using both pre-child-support and post-child-support income, for all custodial-mother families and the subgroup of these families receiving child support. Results show that among those poor families who received child support, it brought 32 per cent of them out of poverty, and had even larger effects on extreme poverty. For those who receive it, child support reduces the poverty gap by about one-third. International comparisons suggest that single parents in Colombia are doing much worse than single parents in Scandinavian countries but about the same with respect to those in some Anglo-Saxon countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Due to the high incidence of poverty among custodial-parent families, most countries have a variety of policies designed to increase these families'' income security, including child support. However, despite policy efforts, in a wide range of countries the majority of custodial-parent families do not receive these transfers. Does this suggest that a low receipt rate is a core issue of child support policy across contexts? To explore this question, this paper focuses on child support receipt in two very different countries, Colombia and the United States. The overarching question is whether the country of residence is associated with the likelihood of child support receipt. The Colombian 2008 Quality of Life Survey and the U.S. 2008 Current Population Survey‐Child Support Supplement provide information on 6751 custodial mothers. Based on a series of probit models, our study shows that living in the U.S. is associated with an increase in the likelihood of child support receipt. However, once we control for custodial mother''s characteristics, the marginal effect of country of residence decreases significantly, and variables such as custodial mother''s education and income quintile become important as well. These findings suggest that in both countries custodial mothers have similar issues when it comes to receiving financial support from their children''s father, despite the differences in economic development and attention to child support policy in Colombia and the U.S. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]