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The Earned Income Tax Credit and Food Consumption Patterns

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Abstract

The Earned Income Tax Credit is unique among social programs in that benefits are not paid out evenly across the calendar year. We exploit this feature of the EITC to investigate how the credit influences the food expenditure patterns of eligible households. We find that eligible households spend relatively more on healthy items including fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and poultry, and dairy products during the months when most refunds are paid.

Suggested Citation

  • Leslie McGranahan & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, 2013. "The Earned Income Tax Credit and Food Consumption Patterns," Working Paper Series WP-2013-14, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-2013-14
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "Growth in Means-Tested Programs and Tax Credits for Low-Income Households," Reports 43934, Congressional Budget Office.
    2. Bruce D. Meyer & Wallace K. C. Mok & James X. Sullivan, 2009. "The Under-Reporting of Transfers in Household Surveys: Its Nature and Consequences," NBER Working Papers 15181, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Barrow, Lisa & McGranahan, Leslie, 2000. "The Effects of the Earned Income Credit on the Seasonality of Household Expenditures," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 4), pages 1211-44, December.
    4. Nada Eissa & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2006. "Behavioral Responses to Taxes: Lessons from the EITC and Labor Supply," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 73-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Andrew Goodman-Bacon & Leslie McGranahan, 2008. "How do EITC recipients spend their refunds?," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 32(Q II), pages 17-32.
    6. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "Growth in Means-Tested Programs and Tax Credits for Low-Income Households," Reports 43934, Congressional Budget Office.
    7. Barrow, Lisa & McGranahan, Leslie, 2000. "The Effects of the Earned Income Credit on the Seasonality of Household Expenditures," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(4), pages 1211-1244, December.
    8. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "Growth in Means-Tested Programs and Tax Credits for Low-Income Households," Reports 43934, Congressional Budget Office.
    9. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "Growth in Means-Tested Programs and Tax Credits for Low-Income Households," Reports 43934, Congressional Budget Office.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lauren E. Jones & Kevin Milligan & Mark Stabile, 2019. "Child cash benefits and family expenditures: Evidence from the National Child Benefit," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1433-1463, November.
    2. O. Kondratjeva & S. P. Roll & M. Despard & M. Grinstein-Weiss, 2022. "The Impact of Tax Refund Delays on the Experience of Hardship Among Lower-Income Households," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 239-280, June.
    3. Tzu-Ting Yang, 2016. "Family Labor Supply and the Timing of Cash Transfers: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit," IEAS Working Paper : academic research 16-A012, Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
    4. Markowitz, Sara & Komro, Kelli A. & Livingston, Melvin D. & Lenhart, Otto & Wagenaar, Alexander C., 2017. "Effects of state-level Earned Income Tax Credit laws in the U.S. on maternal health behaviors and infant health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 67-75.
    5. Khanal, Binod, 2020. "Cash transfers and consumption of healthy and unhealthy food: evidence from tax refunds," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304346, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Jonathan Fisher & David H. Rehkopf, 2022. "The Earned Income Tax Credit as supplementary food benefits and savings for durable goods," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 439-455, July.
    7. Otto Lenhart, 2023. "The earned income tax credit and food insecurity," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(5), pages 1543-1570, October.
    8. Otto Lenhart, 2017. "The impact of minimum wages on population health: evidence from 24 OECD countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(8), pages 1031-1039, November.
    9. Olga Kondratjeva & Stephen P. Roll & Mathieu Despard & Michal Grinstein‐Weiss, 2021. "The impact of state earned income tax credit increases on material and medical hardship," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 872-910, September.
    10. Jiwei Chen, 2021. "Do minimum wage increases benefit worker health? Evidence from China," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 473-499, June.
    11. Otto Lenhart, 2021. "The effects of paid family leave on food insecurity—evidence from California," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 615-639, September.
    12. Mary Kopriva, 2023. "Universal Cash Transfer Impacts on Maternal and Infant Health," Working Papers 2023-02, University of Alaska Anchorage, Department of Economics.
    13. Otto Lenhart, 2019. "The effects of income on health: new evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 377-410, June.
    14. Robin Boadway & Jean‐Denis Garon & Louis Perrault, 2019. "Optimal mixed taxation, credit constraints, and the timing of income tax reporting," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 21(4), pages 708-737, August.
    15. Dayanand S. Manoli & Nicholas Turner, 2014. "Nudges and Learning: Evidence from Informational Interventions for Low-Income Taxpayers," NBER Working Papers 20718, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Earned Income Tax Credit; Obesity; Healthy Eating; Food Expenditures;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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