IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revinw/v72y2026i2ne70068.html

Spending Response to the Expanded Child Tax Credit: An Analysis Using United States Consumer Expenditure Survey Data

Author

Listed:
  • Jake Schild
  • Sophie M. Collyer
  • Thesia Garner
  • Neeraj Kaushal
  • Jiwan Lee
  • Jane Waldfogel
  • Christopher T. Wimer

Abstract

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 substantially expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Early studies documented that the expanded CTC reduced poverty and food insufficiency, but there is little research on its impact on household spending, particularly child‐related spending. We use data from the Consumer Expenditure Interview Survey and a difference‐in‐difference design to examine whether the expanded CTC increased spending overall, in major categories, and on specific items related to children's education and development. Our findings indicate that households used the CTC payments to enhance the well‐being of both their children and the entire household. For each $100 of CTC payment, our models show that households spent $44, mainly on housing ($28) and food ($12). When examining child‐related spending specifically—which overlaps with broader spending categories—households spent $16 per $100. We also find that the increase in child‐related spending was larger for Asian‐, Black‐, and Hispanic‐headed households than for White‐headed households.

Suggested Citation

  • Jake Schild & Sophie M. Collyer & Thesia Garner & Neeraj Kaushal & Jiwan Lee & Jane Waldfogel & Christopher T. Wimer, 2026. "Spending Response to the Expanded Child Tax Credit: An Analysis Using United States Consumer Expenditure Survey Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 72(2), May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:72:y:2026:i:2:n:e70068
    DOI: 10.1111/roiw.70068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.70068
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/roiw.70068?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:72:y:2026:i:2:n:e70068. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iariwea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.