Dan Meyer
Ph.D.

Professor; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990. Interests: poverty policy, welfare reform, economic well-being of single-parent families, international family policy. Current research: child support and welfare recipiency.

Contact Information

University of Wisconsin, Madison - Social Work
321 School of Social Work
1350 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706
Phone: 262-7336
Fax: 263-3836
Email: drmeyer1@wisc.edu

Education

Southern Illinois University, BSSW/BSBA, 1977
Washington University, MSW/MBA, 1983
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ph.D., Social Welfare, 1990

Research Interests

Throughout his career, Dr. Meyer has focused on understanding social policies aimed at improving the economic well-being of single-parent families with children. He is currently evaluating the effects of child support policies that affect families receiving welfare. He collaborates closely with Dr. Cancian on a number of other studies related to welfare reform. Dr. Meyer is also part of an international research team analyzing family policy in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

Current Research Projects

Project Title: Wisconsin Works Child Support Evaluation: Long-term Follow-Up

Role on Project: Principal Investigator, with Maria Cancian

Funding Agency: Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Wisconsin is unique among the states in allowing welfare participants to keep the child support paid on their behalf. This large-scale evaluation examines whether this policy affects child support payments, welfare use, and the well-being of children, nonresident fathers, and resident mothers.

For more information, see the executive summaries of the final report of phase I at: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/csde/phase1-vol1-es.htm and http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/csde/phase1-vol2-es.htm.

Project Title: The Well-Being of Women Leaving Welfare in Wisconsin

Role on Project: One of a team of researchers

Funding Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

This project examines later economic well-being of women who have left welfare, comparing cohorts of women who left during different time periods and in different policy regimes.

For an early report from this project, see http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/sr/sr77.pdf.

Selected Publications

2001 Daniel R. Meyer and Maria Cancian. "Ten Years Later: Economic Well-Being among those Who Left Welfare." Forthcoming in Journal of Applied Social Sciences.

2000 Maria Cancian and Daniel R. Meyer. "Work after Welfare: Work Effort, Occupational and Economic Well-Being." Social Work Research, 24:69-86.

1999 Daniel R. Meyer and Mei-Chen Hu. "A Note on the Anti-Poverty Effectiveness of Child Support among Mother-Only Families." Journal of Human Resources. 34: 225-34.

1998 Maria Cancian and Daniel R. Meyer. "Who Gets Custody?" Demography. 35:147-57

1998 Daniel R. Meyer and Maria Cancian. "Economic Well-Being Following an Exit from AFDC." Journal of Marriage and the Family. 60:479-92.

1998 Daniel R. Meyer and Judi Bartfeld. "Patterns of Child Support Payment in Wisconsin." Journal of Marriage and the Family. 60:309-18.

1998 Irwin Garfinkel, Sara S. McLanahan, Daniel R. Meyer, and Judith A. Seltzer, eds. Fathers under Fire: The Revolution in Child Support Enforcement. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Chapter 1: "A Brief History of Child Support Policy in the United States," by Garfinkel, Meyer and McLanahan.
Chapter 3: "The Effect of Child Support on the Economic Status of Nonresident Fathers," by Meyer.

1996 Rebecca Y. Kim, Irwin Garfinkel, and Daniel R. Meyer. "Is the Whole Greater than the Sum of the Parts? Interaction Effects of Three Non-Income-Tested Transfers for Families with Children." Social Work Research 20:274-85.