Economics of Foster Care

We are grateful to Lawrence Berger, Eric Chyn, Kim Dadisman, Erik Hurst, Barrett Johnson, Bridgette Lery, Margarita Machelett, Enrico Moretti, Nina Pavcnik, Heidi Williams, and Fred Wulczyn for helpful comments, and especially to Timothy Taylor for extensive comments and edits. We thank Sam Haas for excellent research assistance. The data used in this publication, AFCARS Foster Care Files 1995 to 2019, were obtained from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect and have been used in accordance with its Terms of Use Agreement license. The Administration on Children, Youth and Families, the Children’s Bureau, the original dataset collection personnel or funding source, NDACAN, Cornell University and their agents or employees bear no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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