Estimating the Short-Term Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Child Health
Estimating the Short-Term Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Child Health
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DOI：
10.1093/aje/kwy179
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发表时间：
2018-12-01
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Rehkopf, David H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Hamad, Rita;Collin, Daniel F.;Rehkopf, David H.
所得税抵免 (EITC) 是美国最大的扶贫计划，但很少有研究探讨其对受益人子女健康的影响。我们采用准实验技术来检验 EITC 退款收据与儿童健康的短期改善相关的假设。该数据集包括第三次全国健康与营养调查调查家庭中的儿童（n = 7,444）。我们采用差异-无差异方法，利用 EITC 退款收据的季节性特征。我们将收到退款后（2 月至 4 月）立即接受采访的符合 EITC 资格的家庭的儿童与其他月份（5 月至 1 月）接受采访的儿童进行了比较，以区分非 EITC 资格家庭的季节性变化。我们检查了收到退款后可能立即受到影响的结果，包括一般健康、营养、代谢和炎症生物标志物以及测试分数。收到退款后，医生报告的整体健康状况有所改善，但感染、血清代谢或炎症标志物或测试分数没有变化，并且食物不足的结果相互矛盾。总之，EITC 退款与受助者子女的大多数短期健康结果并没有很强的相关性，尽管之前的大量研究已经证明对长期结果的影响。这凸显了使用不同的研究设计来检查公共政策对受益人及其子女的影响的重要性。
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the largest US poverty-alleviation program, yet few studies examine its effects on the health of recipients' children. We employed quasiexperimental techniques to test the hypothesis that EITC refund receipt is associated with short-term improvements in child health. The data set included children in families surveyed in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 7,444). We employed a difference-indifferences approach, exploiting the seasonal nature of EITC refund receipt. We compared children of EITC-eligible families interviewed immediately after refund receipt (February to April) with those interviewed during other months (May to January), differencing out seasonal variation among non-EITC-eligible families. We examined outcomes that were likely to be affected immediately after refund receipt, including general health, nutrition, metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers, and test scores. There were improvements in physician-reported overall health after refund receipt but no changes in infection, serum metabolic or inflammatory markers, or test scores, and there were contradictory findings for food insufficiency. In summary, EITC refunds are not strongly associated with most short-term health outcomes among recipients' children, although numerous previous studies have demonstrated impacts on longer-term outcomes. This highlights the importance of examining the effects of public policies on beneficiaries and their children using varying study designs.