Can the Earned Income Tax Credit Reduce Disparities in Intergenerational Health Mobility?

该项目将提供关于公共政策是否以及在多大程度上能够 有意义地打破健康状况不佳和健康差距在各代人之间的持续存在。我们 关注所得税抵免（EITC）对代际健康流动性的影响， EITC是美国最大的，也可能是最有效的反贫困计划之一。 代际流动基本上衡量的是机会平等--这是许多人所接受的一个愿景 美国人-通过量化儿童相对于父母的预期福利。机会平等 我认为孩子的成长不应该受父母性格的影响。恰恰相反， 孩子们将有机会塑造自己的命运，不受他们所处环境的影响。 父母在美国，研究确定了健康的代际持续性（流动性的匡威）， 社会经济地位因种族/族裔和地点而异-明显背离平等的理想 机会健康可能是一个独特的特征，受到明显的遗传影响， 持续跨代;然而，研究清楚地确定了非遗传成分在代际 健康持久性为公共政策打开了大门，切实改善健康机会。因为 EITC的影响和/或代际健康流动性是由婚姻状况，性别和种族/民族模式， 我们还研究了EITC是否不成比例地影响弱势群体的健康流动性， 调查儿童时期领取补助金最佳时间。 在收入动态的小组研究中，我们使用了超过11，000对父母-子女对， EITC关于代际健康流动性的三个既定指标：代际持续性， 向上和向下的健康流动性（即，父母相对健康的孩子的预期健康状况 健康状况良好或较差）。我们将我们的研究与经常描述的代际研究区分开来， 流动性文献，采用一个合理的外生识别策略，以确定的影响， 关于健康流动性的EITC。获得EITC的资格取决于家庭中受抚养子女的数量。 然而，在联邦和州一级，福利的慷慨程度和资格正在并一直在积极变化 自1975年成立以来。正是这种变化，我们利用（家庭中的孩子数量， 居住地和时间），以估计EITC对健康流动性的影响。由于对 在个人层面上的资格和吸收，我们分配给每个孩子最大的EITC福利， 无论实际或观察到的所得税抵免收入、健康或收入如何。估计 结果可以为联邦和州政府提供可行的途径 政策制定者评估EITC成本和收益，以有效减少机会不平等。

This project will provide the first estimates of whether, and to what degree, public policy can meaningfully disrupt the persistence of poor health and health disparities across generations. We focus attention on the effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on intergenerational health mobility as the EITC is one of the largest and possibly most effective anti-poverty programs in the United States (US). Intergenerational mobility essentially measures equality of opportunity – a vision embraced by many Americans – by quantifying the expected welfare of children relative to their parents. Equality of opportunity would posit that children’s outcomes ought not be shaped by their parent’s characteristics. On the contrary, children would have the opportunity to shape their own destiny unencumbered by the circumstances of their parents. In the US, research identifies intergenerational persistence (the converse of mobility) in health and socioeconomic status that varies by race/ethnicity and place – a clear departure from the ideal of equal opportunities. Health could be a unique characteristic subjected to clear genetic influences that would naturally persist across generations; however, research clearly identifies non-genetic components in intergenerational health persistence that opens the door to public policy feasibly ameliorating health opportunity. Because the EITC’s impacts and/or intergenerational health mobility is patterned by marital status, sex, and race/ethnicity, we also examine whether the EITC disproportionately affects health mobility for disadvantaged groups and investigate optimal timing of benefit receipt in childhood. Using more than 11,000 parent-child pairs in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we estimate the effect of the EITC on three established measures of intergenerational health mobility: intergenerational persistence, upward, and downward health mobility (i.e., the expected health of children whose parents are in relatively poor or good health, respectively). We distinguish our study from the often-descriptive intergenerational mobility literature by employing a plausibly exogenous identification strategy to determine the effect of EITC on health mobility. Eligibility for the EITC is based on the number of dependent children in the household. Benefit generosity and eligibility however is, and has been, actively changing at the federal- and state-level since its inception in 1975. It is this variation that we leverage (the number of children in the household, state of residence, and time) to produce estimates of the EITC’s effect on health mobility. Due to the endogeneity of eligibility and take-up at the individual level, we assign each child the maximum EITC benefit afforded to children in their household type regardless of actual or observed EITC receipt, health, or income. Estimates are therefore reflective of the intent to treat. Results could provide actionable pathways for federal and state policymakers evaluating EITC costs and benefits to effectively reduce inequities in opportunity.