The Impact of the Changing US Family Structure on Child Poverty and Income Inequality

This paper analyzes links between rising income inequality, child poverty, and one-parent families in the United States from 1971 to 1989. One test reallocated weights so that 1989 proportions of children by mother's marital status resembled the 1971 distribution. A second method used (1) simulated marriages among unmarried men and unmarried mothers in 1989 to reproduce 1971 marital patterns and (2) earnings responses induced by the simulated marriages. The results indicate that the trend away from marriage accounted for almost half the increase in child income inequality and more than the entire rise in child poverty rates.