American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Who Gets a Family? The Consequences of Family and Congregate Care Allocation for Child Outcomes
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
(pp. 309–47)
Abstract
Hundreds of thousands of children grow up in the US foster care system every year and are at high risk of experiencing negative outcomes such as incarceration and homelessness. This paper documents how the placement of foster children into families rather than congregate care improves their outcomes, using the exits of other children from families as an instrument for their placement setting. Policies that change which children are matched to families can achieve a large percentage of the gains from policies that add families to the foster care system due to heterogeneity in treatment effects.Citation
Taylor, Cameron. 2026. "Who Gets a Family? The Consequences of Family and Congregate Care Allocation for Child Outcomes." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 18 (4): 309–47. DOI: 10.1257/app.20210798Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J18 Demographic Economics: Public Policy
- K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law