Impact of the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act on child support order establishment

•CSPIA altered incentive for CSE officials to serve welfare versus non-welfare families.•CSPIA increased orders for non-welfare families by 12% in the first year after the first child's birth.•CSPIA did not substantially alter the order establishment rate for families receiving welfare.

This paper examines the impact of the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act (CSPIA) of 1998 on the establishment of child support orders for never-married mothers who receive welfare assistance compared to those that do not. We primarily focus on the first year of motherhood after the birth of the first child. Using Survey on Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data, we find that CSPIA changed the provision of service by 12 percentage points between these two groups, largely due to a significant increase in child support orders for non-welfare families; CSPIA did not substantially alter the order establishment rate for families receiving welfare.