Effects of Higher EITC Payments on Children’s Health, Quality of Home Environment, and Noncognitive Skills

Averett, Susan L.; Wang, Yan

doi:10.1177/1091142116654965

“…provide evidence that the EITC reduces the likelihood of low birth weight, while changes in prenatal care, smoking and shifts from public to private insurance are shown to be potential mechanisms explaining how the program affects birth weight. Averett and Wang (2016) find that higher EITCs can improve mother-rated health for children of married white mothers and unmarried Black and Hispanic mothers. One health outcome that has so far been shown to be negatively affected by higher EITCs is obesity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Several recent studies on the EITC have examine whether the program is able to improve health outcomes of children (Baughman and Duchovny 2016;Averett and Wang 2016), infants , mothers (Evans and Garthwaite 2014), and low-income adults (Larrimore 2011). This study joins this small group of papers and adds to them by making five contributions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The state fixed effects are important to control for existing differences across states. To further account for other welfare reforms that were passed in the late 1990s in the US, I also estimate specifications that net out the effects of several time-varying differences across states in labor market and welfare reforms (Averett and Wang 2016). I use linear probability methods to estimate the main specifications shown in this section.…”

Section: Dd Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, potential measurement errors can be reduced since each individual's health is only compared to their own prior assessment, which takes into account that respondents might have their own scales in ranking their health (reference bias). To my knowledge, only one previous paper uses longitudinal data to analyze the relationship between the EITC and health (Averett and Wang 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The effects of income on health: new evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit

Lenhart

¹

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examines the relationship between income and health by using an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which increased benefits to households with at least two children, as a source of exogenous variations of earnings. The paper adds to previous work by: (1) estimating treatment effects on the treated using simulated EITC benefits and longitudinal data; (2) testing whether health effects vary across the three different parts of the EITC schedule; (3) examining the role of food expenditures and health insurance as potential mechanisms. The study finds that income improves the likelihood of affected heads of households reporting to be in excellent or very good health by 6.9 to 8.9 percentage points. The effects are largest in the plateau phase of the EITC schedule, where previous researchers have identified pure income effects of the program. The results are robust to several additional specifications, including a semi-parametric DD model and specifications that account for the potential endogeneity of sample. When examining potential channels underlying the relationship between income and health, I find that affected household increase their food expenditures by 10.5 to 20.3 percent and are 1.52 percent more likely to have health insurance coverage. Keywords Income • Health • Earned Income Tax Credit • Food expenditures JEL classifications I14 • I38 • J38

show abstract

“…Several recent studies on the EITC have examine whether the program is able to improve health outcomes of children (Baughman and Duchovny 2016;Averett and Wang 2016), infants , mothers (Evans and Garthwaite 2014), and low-income adults (Larrimore 2011). This study joins this small group of papers and adds to them by making five contributions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Income on Health: New Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit

Lenhart

¹

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examines the relationship between income and health by using an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which increased benefits to households with at least two children, as a source of exogenous variations of earnings. The paper adds to previous work by: (1) estimating treatment effects on the treated using simulated EITC benefits and longitudinal data; (2) testing whether health effects vary across the three different parts of the EITC schedule; (3) examining the role of food expenditures and health insurance as potential mechanisms. The study finds that income improves the likelihood of affected heads of households reporting to be in excellent or very good health by 6.9 to 8.9 percentage points. The effects are largest in the plateau phase of the EITC schedule, where previous researchers have identified pure income effects of the program. The results are robust to several additional specifications, including a semi-parametric DD model and specifications that account for the potential endogeneity of sample. When examining potential channels underlying the relationship between income and health, I find that affected household increase their food expenditures by 10.5 to 20.3 percent and are 1.52 percent more likely to have health insurance coverage.

show abstract

The effect of state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) eligibility on food insufficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic

Das

¹

2022

Rev Econ Household

1

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper uses data from the Household Pulse Survey to examine whether and for how long the eligibility to receive state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) benefits reduced self-reported household food insufficiency among lower-income households with dependent children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of models estimated using difference-in-differences (DD) and difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) methods suggest that state EITC eligibility, on average, reduced food insufficiency by about 3 percentage points between March 2021 and early October 2021. However, the results of models estimated using an event study method show that the effect was not visible in all the post-March bimonthly periods. Overall, this paper finds some evidence to suggest that state EITC eligibility reduced food insufficiency over a short period.

show abstract

Effects of Higher EITC Payments on Children’s Health, Quality of Home Environment, and Noncognitive Skills

Cited by 49 publications

References 68 publications

The effects of income on health: new evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit

The effects of income on health: new evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit

The Effects of Income on Health: New Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit

The effect of state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) eligibility on food insufficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About