Public Intuitions about Fair Child Support Allocations: Converging Evidence for a 'Fair Shares' Rule

56 Pages Posted: 17 Jul 2012 Last revised: 22 Nov 2013

See all articles by Sanford L. Braver

Sanford L. Braver

Arizona State University (ASU) - Department of Psychology

Ira Mark Ellman

Center for the Study of Law and Society, Berkeley Law, University of California, Berkeley; Arizona State University College of Law; Arizona State University (ASU) - Department of Psychology

Robert MacCoun

Stanford Law School

Date Written: June 23, 2013

Abstract

Nearly all American states use one of two systems for setting the amount of child support that noncustodial parents (NCPs) are required to pay to custodial parents (CPs). In previous work we found that lay judgments of the child support amount the law should require differ in meaningful ways from these two systems: Our respondents favor child support amounts that are more responsive to the NCP’s income, and much more responsive to the CP’s income, than set by either system. They also favor dollar amounts that increase more rapidly with NCP income when CP income is lower, producing a characteristic fanning lines pattern when dollar support amounts are charted against NCP income for several different CP incomes. We give the label “Fair Shares” to these two features of our respondents’ child support judgments. We describe 6 new experimental studies that vary the context of these judgments in ways that test whether the “Fair Shares” account is robust. Our studies consistently replicate the fan shaped pattern and shed further light on lay judgments. A revised version of this paper has been acceptred for publication in Psychology, Public Policy, and Law.

Suggested Citation

Braver, Sanford L. and Ellman, Ira Mark and MacCoun, Robert, Public Intuitions about Fair Child Support Allocations: Converging Evidence for a 'Fair Shares' Rule (June 23, 2013). 7th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies Paper, UC Berkeley Public Law Research Paper No. 2110376, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2110376 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2110376

Sanford L. Braver (Contact Author)

Arizona State University (ASU) - Department of Psychology ( email )

950 S. McAllister Ave
P. O. Box 871104
Tempe, AZ 85287-1104
United States

Ira Mark Ellman

Center for the Study of Law and Society, Berkeley Law, University of California, Berkeley ( email )

Berkeley, CA 94720-2150
United States

HOME PAGE: http://csls.berkeley.edu/people/csls-affiliates

Arizona State University College of Law ( email )

Box 877906
Phoenix, AZ
United States

Arizona State University (ASU) - Department of Psychology ( email )

950 S. McAllister Ave
P. O. Box 871104
Tempe, AZ 85287-1104
United States

Robert MacCoun

Stanford Law School ( email )

559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
United States
650-721-7031 (Phone)

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