Longitudinal studies of effects of divorce on children in Great Britain and the United States.

National, longitudinal surveys from Great Britain and the United States were used to investigate the effects of divorce on children. In both studies, a subsample of children who were in two-parent families during the initial interview (at age 7 in the British data and at ages 7 to 11 in the U.S. data) were followed through the next interview (at age 11 and ages 11 to 16, respectively). At both time points in the British data, parents and teachers independently rated the children's behavior problems, and the children were given reading and mathematics achievement tests. At both time points in the U.S. data, parents rated the children's behavior problems. Children whose parents divorced or separated between the two time points were compared to children whose families remained intact. For boys, the apparent effect of separation or divorce on behavior problems and achievement at the later time point was sharply reduced by considering behavior problems, achievement levels, and family difficulties that were present at the earlier time point, before any of the families had broken up. For girls, the reduction in the apparent effect of divorce occurred to a lesser but still noticeable extent once preexisting conditions were considered.

Differences in private health insurance coverage for working male Hispanics.

In 1993, 33.8% of all nonelderly adult Hispanics living in the United States lacked health insurance coverage (either private or public), compared to 8.1% of the entire nonelderly population. Because Hispanics are more likely to be uninsured than any other ethnic group and because they are the fastest growing minority group in the United States, the increase in the Hispanic population is likely to increase the proportion of the population without health insurance. Particularly striking are differences in private health insurance coverage among the three major Hispanic groups--Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Puerto Ricans. In this paper, regression-based decomposition analysis is used to explain the sources of differences in private health insurance coverage among working males in these three group. The results indicate that among the study population, Cuban-Americans have higher rates of private health insurance coverage than Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans, and that wage rates, levels of education, age, occupation, and marital status explain most of the difference.

Child care demand and labor supply of young mothers over time.

This paper uses panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to analyze jointly fertility, employment, and child care decisions of young women over time. As these young women age (from 21 to 25 years on average) they become increasingly likely to have young children, to be employed, and to use non-relative forms of child care. A multivariate analysis reveals that rising wage rates and changes in household structure are important determinants of these upward trends. Further analysis reveals a considerable amount of movement each year among states defined by the presence of young children, employment, and child care arrangement. Overall the young women in the NLSY can be characterized as being in a volatile stage of their lives, when many economic and demographic factors are changing. They appear to respond to these changes by altering their labor supply and child care behavior.

A dynamic analysis of turnover in employment and child care.

The causes of turnover in child-care arrangements and maternal employment are analyzed using panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, supplemented with state-level information on child-care markets. The results indicate that turnover in child care is quite high and that child and family characteristics help explain turnover. Important factors include the mother's wage, the cost of child care, age of the child, and previous child-care decisions. The reduced-form nature of the analysis makes it difficult to determine whether these factors are important because they are associated with unstable child-care supply or because they affect family decisions, conditional on supply factors. The results provide no direct evidence that child-care turnover is higher in states with more unstable child-care markets.

Fertility, employment, and child-care costs.

A sample of labor-market and birth histories is used to estimate the effects of child-care costs on employment and fertility decisions. A reduced-form empirical analysis is performed, which is based on hazard functions for transitions among various fertility--employment states. Higher child-care costs result in a lower birth rate for nonemployed women but not for employed women. Higher child-care costs also lead to an increase in the rate of leaving employment and a reduction in the rate of entering employment. The results suggest that potential behavioral effects of child-care subsidies could be significant and should be taken into account when alternative child-care policies are being debated.

Child support and welfare dependence: a multinomial logit analysis.

The relation between welfare dependency and receipt of child support is investigated with data from a special supplement to the Current Population Survey. The impact of receiving child support on a family's welfare status is estimated and the types of families for which child support enforcement policies may have the greatest impact are identified. Overall, the results indicate that receipt of child support has a modest impact on reducing welfare dependency. However, the results also indicate that if child support obligations can be established and enforced shortly after a marital dissolution takes place, the likelihood that a family will later become a welfare recipient is significantly reduced.