Child-Adoption Matching: Preferences for Gender and Race

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2010

This paper uses a new data set on domestic child adoption to document the preferences of potential adoptive parents over born and unborn babies relinquished for adoption by their birth mothers. We show that adoptive parents exhibit significant biases in favor of girls and against African-American babies. A non-African-American baby relinquished for adoption attracts the interest of potential adoptive parents with probability 11.5% if it is a girl and 7.9% if it is a boy. As for race, a non-African-American baby has a probability of attracting the interest of an adopting parent at least seven times as high as the corresponding probability for an African-American baby. In addition, we show that a child's desirability in the adoption process depends significantly on time to birth (increasing over the pregnancy, but decreasing after birth) and on adoption costs. We also document the attitudes toward babies' characteristics across different categories of adoptive parents -heterosexual and same-sex couples, as well as single women and foreign couples. Finally, we consider several recently discussed policies excluding same-sex and foreign couples from the adoption process. In our data, such policies would reduce the number of adopted babies by 6% and 33%, respectively.

Public Finance Review, 2014

In the United States child adoption costs vary considerably, ranging from no out-of-pocket expense to $50,000 or more. What are the underlying causes for the variability in child adoption expenses? While cost variability is widely acknowledged, the sources of the differentials have not been systematically examined. This research considers the possibility that adoption cost differentials are determined by adoptive parent preferences for adoptive child characteristics. We administered a detailed survey to a sample of Michigan adoptive families to link adoptive parent characteristics, child characteristics, and adoption-related expenses and subsidies. We then use these data to estimate "hedonic" regressions in which adoption cost is a function of child characteristics. Our findings show that as much as 66 percent of the variation in cost is explained by child characteristics. Adoption costs are lower for older children, special needs children, and children of African descent. To our knowledge, this research is original in its application of hedonic analysis to child adoption decisions. Findings of the study inform policies regarding the transition of children from foster care to adoptive families and may help to determine appropriate subsidies aimed at achieving permanency and improved overall child well-being. JEL-Code: D100.

2006

More than 20,000 white Americans go abroad each year to adopt children from other countries, the majority of whom are not white. At the same time, there are more African-American children available for adoption than there are African-American families seeking to adopt them. While Americans claim there are few healthy infants available for adoption in the United States, hundreds of African-American newborns each year are placed with white families in Canada and other countries. Tracing the history of transracial adoption in the United States, Professor Maldonado argues that one reason Americans go abroad to adopt is race. The racial hierarchy in the adoption market places white children at the top, African-American children at the bottom, and children of other races in between, thereby possibly rendering children from Asia or Latin America more desirable to adoptive parents than African-American children. Drawing on the rich literature on cognitive bias, Professor Maldonado debunks t...

International Review of Law and Economics, 2008

The system for the adoption of children is not working well. The dysfunction of the adoption system manifests itself in an excess demand for healthy white babies and excess supply of older children, minority children, or those with disabilities. A market solution can increase the number of adoptions for older children, minority children or children with disabilities. Recognizing the heterogeneity of children and taking account of those differences will yield price differentiation in segmented markets. Such differentiation is especially important in the market for adopted children where the lifetime consequences of a poor match can be severe; more information about child attributes can only improve child-adopter matches. Revenues from the sale of adoption rights for highly demanded children could subsidize the adoption of the less desired children. The time to adoption will decrease and more of the less desired children will be adopted; the sum of consumer (adoptive parents) plus producer (biological mothers or the adoption agencies) surplus will rise and eliminate sub rosa markets for the more desired children. (U. Spiegel). 1 These statistics and associated calculations are derived from and , and are based on federal and state data.

As adoption of a child from abroad and from the state's foster care system is increasingly practiced, prospective adoptive parents now have several options: private domestic, foster care, or international adoption. However, little research has been conducted on the similarities and differences in the characteristics of the child and family and the decision-making process by adoption type. We therefore ask: How are the characteristics of the child and family associated with the type of adoption? And what factors are considered important for adoptive parents in deciding whether to choose private domestic or international adoption? Using the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents, we found that attributes of the child and family differ by the type of adoption, and while adoptive parents expressed a preference to resemble a biologically formed family, the emphasis was placed differently by adoption type.

Advance data, 1999

This report presents national data on adoption and adoption-related behaviors among ever-married women 18-44 years of age in the United States, according to selected characteristics of the women. Trends are shown in the prevalence of adoption and relinquishment of children for adoption. For 1995, the report shows demand for adoption and women's preferences for characteristics of the child. Data are based on nationally representative samples of women 15-44 years of age from the 1973, 1982, 1988, and 1995 National Surveys of Family Growth (NSFG). The percent of ever-married women 18-44 years of age who have ever adopted a child declined from 2.1 percent in 1973 to 1.3 percent in 1995. Of the 9.9 million women who had ever considered adoption, 16 percent had taken steps toward adoption, and 31 percent of these had actually adopted a child. Older women, nulliparous women, women with fecundity impairment, and women who have used infertility services were more likely to have considere...

2016

The likelihood that a child in U.S. foster care is adopted may depend upon alternatives available to parents. Using a child level panel from 19982003, we estimate the causal effect of international adoptions and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) on adoption probabilities for foster children less than nine years old. We find that international adoptions have significant and robust negative effects on foster adoptions, while estimated effects of ART births are smaller and sensitive to model specification.

1994

I wish to thank Bryan Beier and Carol Simpson for their research assistance on this article. 1 The original paper was co-authored by Elizabeth Landes. Elizabeth Landes & Richard A. Posner, The Economics of the Baby Shortage, 7 J. LEGAL STUD. 323 (1978). Posner has also written specifically regarding the adoption market. See Richard A.

arXiv (Cornell University), 2023

This study explores the marriage matching of only-child individuals and its outcome. Specifically, we analyze two aspects. First, we investigate how marital status (i.e., marriage with an only child, that with a non-only child and remaining single) differs between only children and non-only children. This analysis allows us to know whether people choose mates in a positive or a negative assortative manner regarding only-child status, and to predict whether only-child individuals benefit from marriage matching premiums or are subject to penalties regarding partner attractiveness. Second, we measure the premium/penalty by the size of the gap in partner's socio economic status (SES, here, years of schooling) between only-child and non-only-child individuals. The conventional economic theory and the observed marriage patterns of positive assortative mating on only-child status predict that onlychild individuals are subject to a matching penalty in the marriage market, especially when their partner is also an only child. Furthermore, our estimation confirms that among especially women marrying an only-child husband, only children are penalized in terms of 0.57-years-lower educational attainment on the part of the partner.

Child Abuse Review, 2019

Participation of children, birth parents and foster carers in matching decision-making has the potential to improve the outcomes of a foster care placement. When practitioners choose which foster family is the best fit for a foster child, those affected by the foster care placement should be involved in decision-making when possible. This research paper examines the influence of children, birth parents and foster carers on the matching decision from a practitioner's perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 practitioners from 17 of the 28 foster care organisations in the Netherlands responsible for matching children with foster families. The analysis identified three themes that diminished the influence of children, birth parents and foster carers on the matching decision: assumptions, timing and feasibility. The findings emphasise that the influence of stakeholders on the matching decision is highly contextual. In the matching process, practitioners can be seen as key figures in facilitating the influence of stakeholders, yet they are also confronted with the difficulty of dealing with more than one stakeholder, who can have opposing interests, in an often compromised setting with limited choices. KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGES: • Despite policy to stimulate the involvement of children, birth parents and foster carers in decisions, their influence on the matching decision is sometimes futile. • Assumptions made by practitioners, timing in the matching process and a compromised setting diminish the stakeholders' influence on the matching decision. • Practitioners are key figures in improving participatory practice to make sure that stakeholders feel understood, valued and taken seriously.