ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the consequences for men of having a child when they are teenagers. Statistics on the relationship between marital status and fertility show that the majority of first births occur to men who are married. Implementation of the Family Support Act of 1988 has strong and interesting policy implications for the costs of teenage fatherhood and their distribution between the father, the mother and child, and the rest of society. The impact of early fatherhood is dampened once the analysis includes control variables thought to be associated with the outcomes. One plausible explanation is that the impact of early childbearing is tied to the issue of whether the man takes responsibility for the child. The predicted child support obligation of the partner of a hypothetical single 16-year-old mother represents 42 percent or 35 percent of the welfare benefit value, respectively, for a nonblack or black woman.