Frischseminar: Marie-Pascale Grimon

Abstract: One third of American children's homes are investigated by child welfare agencies for maltreatment, yet child welfare's causal impacts on parents are unknown. Using a novel strategy that combines event studies with variation in intervention tendencies across investigators, I find that a child welfare intervention initially increases mothers' enrollment in mental health and substance abuse services. Simultaneously, parents get called back in less for child maltreatment. Long-run effects on jail and receipt of health and social safety net services differ by type of child welfare intervention. One past child removal persistently increases parents’-notably fathers’-future child welfare involvement.