Maria Cancian

Professor of Public Affairs and Social Work
305 Observatory Hill Office Building
1225 Observatory Drive

cancian@lafollette.wisc.edu


Curriculum Vitae

Research Interest Statement
Maria Cancian is co-PI with Daniel Meyer for the Child Support Demonstration Evaluation (CSDE), an evaluation of the child support pass-through feature of Wisconsin’s welfare policy. Building on Wisconsin’s experimentally-oriented welfare reforms, the CSDE has produced path-breaking research on the effect of social policy on fertility, marriage and cohabitation, as well as on the well-being of children and families. In their own research, Cancian and Meyer have studied patterns of multiple-partner fertility, the earnings and incomes of women who have received welfare and the implications of child support and custody for the well-being of divorced and never-married families. They have documented dramatic changes in children’s post-divorce living arrangements, the growing importance of child support income for low income women, and the effects of related policy changes. Cancian also studies the impact of married women’s growing employment and earnings on marriage patterns and the distribution of income.

CDE Research Theme Working Groups
Demography of Inequality
Fertility/Families and Households
Data and Methodology