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

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  • Brenda Wyss

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Brenda Wyss, 1999. "Culture and Gender In Household Economies: The Case of Jamaican Child Support Payments," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 1-24.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:5:y:1999:i:2:p:1-24
    DOI: 10.1080/135457099337923
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    Cited by:

    1. Seguino, Stephanie, 2003. "Why are women in the Caribbean so much more likely than men to be unemployed?," MPRA Paper 6507, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Sile Padraigin O'Dorchai, 2007. "Family, work and welfare states in Europe: women's juggling with multiple roles :a series of empirical essays," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/210592, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    3. Theophiline Bose-Duker & Michael Henry & Eric Strobl, 2021. "Children’s Resource Shares: Male Versus Female-Headed Households," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 573-585, December.

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