We study how the largest federal tax-based policy intended to promote work and increase incomes among the poor — the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — affects the socioeconomic standing of children who grew up in households affected by the policy. Using the universe of tax filer records for children linked to their parents, matched with demographic and household information from the decennial Census and American Community Survey data, we exploit exogenous differences by children’s ages in the births and “aging out” of siblings to assess the effect of EITC generosity on child outcomes. We focus on assessing mobility in the child income distribution, conditional on the parents’ position in the parental income distribution. Our findings suggest significant and mostly positive effects of more generous EITC refunds on the next generation that vary substantially depending on the child’s household type (single-mother or married family) and by the child’s gender. All children except White children from single-mother households experience increases in cohort-specific income rank, own family income, and the probability of working at ages 25–26 in response to greater EITC generosity. Children from married households show a considerably stronger response on these measures than do children from single-mother households. Because of the concentration of family types within race groups, the more positive response among children from married households suggests the EITC might lead to higher within-generation racial income inequality. Finally, we examine how the impact of EITC generosity varies by the age at which children are exposed to higher benefits. These results suggest that children who first receive the more generous two-child treatment at later ages have a stronger positive response in terms of rank and family income than children exposed at younger ages.
Determination of the 2020 U.S. Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) Using Administrative Records and Statistical Methodology Technical Report
This report documents the Census Bureau’s recent efforts using multiple data sources to produce block-level statistics on the citizen voting-age population.
An Evaluation of the Gender Wage Gap Using Linked Survey and Administrative Data
This study links Census Bureau survey data and work histories from administrative earnings records to decompose the gender wage gap by detailed occupation.
The Grandkids Aren't Alright: The Intergenerational Effects of Prenatal Pollution Exposure
This paper find that the reductions in parental pollution exposure in utero increase the probability that the children of parents exposed will attend college.