Are There Really Deadbeat Dads? The Relationship between Ability to Pay, Enforcement, and Compliance in Nonmarital Child Support Cases

In this article, we examine the determinants of child support compliance in nonmarital child support cases in Wisconsin by focusing on the father's ability to pay and the stringency of the child support enforcement system. We find that tougher enforcement rules positively affect compliance rates. Higher incomes are associated with higher compliance rates, and lower incomes, with lower rates. The percentage of income that is owed in child support also has an effect on compliance. Orders that represent a high percentage of income relative to existing guidelines are associated with lower compliance rates. However, owing a low percentage of income only has an effect on compliance for fathers with very low incomes; for these fathers, obligating them to pay low amounts of support positively affects compliance. These results suggest that a father's ability to pay, in addition to his willingness to pay, determines the extent to which he fulfills his child support obligation. We conclude that to increase child support collections, both the earning power of noncustodial parents and the stringency of the enforcement system should be increased.