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

这个项目将提供关于公共政策是否以及在多大程度上能够 有意义地破坏健康状况不佳和代代相传的健康差距的持续存在。我们 关注劳动所得税抵免(EITC)对代际健康流动性的影响，因为 EITC是美国最大也可能是最有效的反贫困项目之一。 代际流动本质上衡量的是机会均等--这是许多人信奉的愿景 美国人--通过量化儿童相对于父母的预期福利。机会均等 会假设孩子的结果不应该由父母的特征决定。相反地, 孩子们将有机会塑造自己的命运，而不受他们所处环境的束缚 父母。在美国，研究发现，在健康和健康方面，代际持久性(与流动性相反) 社会经济地位因种族/民族和地区而异--明显背离平等的理想 机遇。健康可能是一种独特的特征，受到明显的基因影响，自然会 代代相传；然而，研究清楚地确定了代际中的非遗传成分 健康坚持为公共政策打开了大门，可行地改善了健康机会。因为 EITC的影响和/或代际健康流动性是以婚姻状况、性别和种族/民族为模式的， 我们还研究了EITC是否不成比例地影响了弱势群体的健康流动性和 调查儿童时期领取福利的最佳时机。 使用收入动态小组研究中的11,000多对父母-孩子，我们估计了 EITC关于代际健康流动性的三个既定衡量标准：代际持续性， 向上和向下的健康流动性(即父母的健康状况相对较差的儿童的预期健康状况 健康状况分别较差或良好)。我们将我们的研究与通常描述性的代际研究区分开来 通过使用貌似合理的外源性识别策略来确定 EITC关于健康机动性的报告。领取经济、社会和文化权利的资格取决于家庭中受抚养儿童的数量。 然而，联邦和州一级的福利慷慨和资格正在并一直在积极变化 自1975年成立以来。我们利用的正是这种变化(家庭中的孩子数量，州 居住和时间)，以估计EITC对卫生流动性的影响。由于生物多样性的内生性 在个人层面上，我们为每个孩子分配最大的EITC福利 家庭类型中的儿童，无论实际或观察到的EITC收入、健康或收入如何。估计数 因此反映了治疗的意图。结果可能为联邦和州政府提供可行的途径 政策制定者评估EITC的成本和收益，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.