Child support awards and the earnings of divorced noncustodial fathers

This article explores the relationship of child support awards to earnings of divorced noncustodial fathers. States have adopted child support award standards that vary in how noncustodial parent income is used in computing the amount of support owed. Most standards use income at the time of the award to set the award as a fixed-dollar amount. A few awards are set as a fixed percentage, so the dollar amount owed depends on income in each period. Economic theory suggests that fathers would increase their market work (and therefore their earnings) in response to a fixed-dollar amount award but that the effect of a fixed-percentage award is ambiguous. Fathers' reactions to child support are important because they affect how much support could be collected and the economic efficiency of awards. Data collected in 21 Wisconsin counties for 1981-89 suggest that the type and level of child support awards did not significantly affect fathers' earnings in the first few years after the award.