Culture and Gender In Household Economies: The Case of Jamaican Child Support Payments

Abstract

This essay uses the example of child support theory and Jamaican childsupport practices to argue that greater attention to local contexts and meaning systems can improve the explanatory and predictive power of economic models and their usefulness to policy-makers. The essay summarizes how neoclassical economists have (and have not) incorporated cultural differences into models of child support behavior. It then sketches two alternative approaches to taking cultural differences more seriously. The first approach maintains the logic and basic assumptions of the neoclassical model but accounts for specifically Jamaican constraints on child support behavior. The second approach considers how Jamaicans themselves might model their own child support practices. The essay identifies strengths of these two culturally sensitive child support models but also argues that both models disadvantage women andchildren by obscuring the opportunity costs of rearing children and helping to rationalize paternal child support default.Jamaican Households, Culture, Gender, Child Support,

Children’s Resource Shares: Male Versus Female-Headed Households

“…This may be due to the fact that in Jamaica the responsibility of child care fell predominantly on women. Hence, children were more likely to take care of their elderly mothers than their elderly fathers (Handa 1996a;Wyss 1999;Handa 1996c). The next covariate of interest related to gender bias within the household.…”

Caribbean Children's Geographies: A Case Study of Jamaica

“…School enrolment levels for children aged 4 to 14 years is high at over 98 per cent but the rate drops to 89 per cent among 15 to 16 year olds and 47.8 per cent among 17 to 18 year olds (UNICEF 2006). A minority of Jamaican children live with both parents (Wyss 1999), with an estimated 47.5 per cent of single‐parent households headed by females according to 2004 figures (UNICEF 2006). Many households are extended family households (Wyss 1999) and, in common with other Caribbean nations, are affected by migration (Olwig 1999; Pottinger 2005).…”

“…A minority of Jamaican children live with both parents (Wyss 1999), with an estimated 47.5 per cent of single‐parent households headed by females according to 2004 figures (UNICEF 2006). Many households are extended family households (Wyss 1999) and, in common with other Caribbean nations, are affected by migration (Olwig 1999; Pottinger 2005). This leaves children vulnerable to abuse, institutional care, and child labour when kinship networks break down (Pottinger 2005).…”