Unveiling Shadows: The Impact of Unemployment on Child Maltreatment

Arbeitspapier

Child maltreatment is pervasive, often undetected, yet harmful. We investigate whether it is impacted by unemployment by leveraging unique administrative data including all reported cases of child abuse and neglect in the United States from 2004 to 2012. Using an industry shift-share instrument to identify county-level unemployment effects, we find a substantial rise in neglect. The likely channel is lower quality-time spent with children rather than decreased financial investments. Expenditures on children remain stable during recessions. Instead, higher local-area unemployment rate reduces parental childcare time, worsens mental health, and contributes to an increase in one-parent households.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16799

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health: General ; Household Behavior: General ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
• Subject: child abuse and neglect ; unemployment rate ; recession ; Bartik ; mental health

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Brown, Dan ; De Cao, Elisabetta
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2024

Further information

• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET