Child Support Enforcement and Child Mortality

Abstract

This paper explores the potential benefit of enforcements in Child Support policies to child mortality rates. Exploiting the sharp changes in Child Support laws across states and over the years 1975–1993, we find that adoption of a full set of policies reduces the child death rate by 23% relative to the mean. The results are robust across multiple subsamples and a variety of specifications. Three potential mechanisms of impact include better health utilization during the prenatal period, improved birth outcomes, and moving towards better-quality health insurance for children.