Working to Avoid Incarceration: Jail Threat and Labor Market Outcomes for Noncustodial Fathers Facing Child Support Enforcement

Abstract

Child support enforcement is among several contexts in which work requirements are enforced by incarceration for noncompliance. Rather than creating barriers to employment, such incarceration threats may pressure subjects to work more, under worse conditions. We test for this using Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study data on respondents’ child support, labor market, and criminal justice experiences in twenty cities. We exploit intercity variation in absolute and relative reliance on different child support enforcement techniques, especially punitive ones, such as incarceration, versus financially extractive ones, such as wage garnishment. As predicted, heavier reliance on incarceration sanctions is associated with more hours of work and lower wages among noncustodial fathers most vulnerable to incarceration.