Welfare Magnets: The Race for the Top

Race to the bottom explanations of welfare policies suggest that the power to set welfare payouts should be assigned to the federal government. Such theories predict that states cut benefits levels when faced with an increased demand for welfare from welfare migrants. This Article\u27s econometric study of the determinants of AFDC payouts finds no evidence that states react in this way. This suggests that states should be accorded the power to curtail welfare payments to new arrivals through residency requirements, an issue left as moot in Anderson v. Green

The Market for Deadbeats

This article outlines three explanations for why states seek migrants and tests them by references to 1985-90 interstate migration flows. On race-for-the-top theories, states compete for value-increasing migrants by offering them healthy economies and efficient laws. On vote-seeking theories, states compete for clienteles of voters, with some states seeking to attract and some to deter welfare- or tax-loving migrants. On deadbeat theories, states compete for high human capital debtors by offering them a fresh start from out-of-state creditors. Our findings support vote-seeking and deadbeat theories

No-Fault Laws and At-Fault People

Absent transaction costs, the Coase Theorem suggests that divorce reform would work no change in the frequency of divorce but perhaps would alter the distribution of marital wealth. However, divorce does involve substantial process costs, which no-fault lowered. This paper explores the question of what happened to state divorce rates because of the legal changes wrought by the family law revolution that began in the 1970s, isolating the effect of the legal variable from other demographic and social factors that might also explain the variation in divorce rates across states and across time

Welfare Magnets: The Race for the Top

Race to the bottom explanations of welfare policies suggest that the power to set welfare payouts should be assigned to the federal government. Such theories predict that states cut benefits levels when faced with an increased demand for welfare from welfare migrants. This Article\u27s econometric study of the determinants of AFDC payouts finds no evidence that states react in this way. This suggests that states should be accorded the power to curtail welfare payments to new arrivals through residency requirements, an issue left as moot in Anderson v. Green

Parental Rights and the Ugly Duckling

Hans Christian Andersen\u27s The Ugly Duckling is best remembered for its moral, To be born in a duck\u27s nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan\u27s egg. Having read and thought about this story many times, we should like to suggest another, less heart-warming, interpretation. The story of the Ugly Duckling, that most resilient of cygnets, masks the tragedy of children who suffer abuse. Its message, that personal spirit will triumph when a child grows up, misrepresents the experience of many victimized children. If we wait for the child to turn into a swan, we will often be sadly disappointed. More troubling is the evidence that different children are more likely to be subjected to repeated abuse by parents or guardians. If a child is seen as ugly (whether disabled or merely inhibiting the parent\u27s romantic relationships), she may suffer many of the torments of the Ugly Duckling. But The Ugly Duckling is a fairy tale. The ugly child seldom emerges as a beautiful swan. Instead, she is more likely to be scarred emotionally, if not physically. Abused children do not fare as well in school, as adults, and particularly as parents. They make up a tragically large proportion of criminals and those who never seem to be able to adjust. This paper reexamines child abuse from the victim\u27s perspective. Most of the literature on child abuse, as well as treatment of the subject in law schools, focuses on the adult abuser: Was there abuse in the adult\u27s family? Were appropriate social services provided? What form did the abuse take? Did police respond appropriately? Was the correct level of due process provided? Can the adult be reunited successfully with the child? How closely does abuse correlate with poverty? This focus is important, for in order to do the unthinkable, abuse one\u27s own child, the parent must be in some or many ways abnormal. We ask a much simpler set of questions, given the fact that a given parent may, under the right set of circumstances, abuse a child. Why are particular children picked on? What makes them less attractive in the eyes of the adults who care for them? What should be done to protect such children from repeated abuse

No-Fault Laws and At-Fault People

Absent transaction costs, the Coase Theorem suggests that divorce reform would work no change in the frequency of divorce but perhaps would alter the distribution of marital wealth. However, divorce does involve substantial process costs, which no-fault lowered. This paper explores the question of what happened to state divorce rates because of the legal changes wrought by the family law revolution that began in the 1970s, isolating the effect of the legal variable from other demographic and social factors that might also explain the variation in divorce rates across states and across time