Rationalizing Child Support Decisions
构建了一个框架，解释非监护父亲支付子女抚养费的合规决策以及机构设定的抚养费金额，发现大多数情况下机构给予监护母亲和子女的福利权重显著低于父亲。
The authors provide a framework within which the child-support compliance decisions of noncustodial fathers and the child-support awards set by institutional agents can be coherently interpreted. The model of child-support transfers is able to capture qualitatively the features of the monthly payment distribution. Estimated parental-decision rules are used to infer the implicit weights given by institutional agents to the postdivorce welfare of parents and children. The authors find that the weight attached to the combined welfare of the custodial mother and child is significantly less than the weight given to the father's welfare in most sample cases. Copyright 1995 by American Economic Association.