IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/psm/wpaper/202401.html

The EITC and Health Across the Life Course: A Scoping Review

Author

Listed:
  • Pooja Madhanraj
  • Slawa Rokicki

Abstract

Reduction of poverty among children may have significant long-run benefits. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the largest federal anti-poverty program in the United States and a large body of evidence demonstrates beneficial impacts on family income, employment, and wealth. Research has also found positive effects of EITC exposure on health and social outcomes. However, there is limited understanding of the extent to which exposure to the EITC in early life affects long-run health. We conducted a scoping review to examine the current state of the evidence on the relationship between EITC exposure and health and social outcomes, and mapped that evidence to the broader literature on long-run health impacts across the life course. We searched the literature through August 2024, and focused on methodologically-strong studies (quasi-experimental or randomized trials). Results are presented across the stages of the life course, including infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We discuss key gaps found.

Suggested Citation

  • Pooja Madhanraj & Slawa Rokicki, 2024. "The EITC and Health Across the Life Course: A Scoping Review," PRISM Working Papers 202401, PRISM (Policy Research in Social Determinants of Maternal and Child Health), Rutgers University.
    • Handle: RePEc:psm:wpaper:202401
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://prism-rutgers.github.io/working-papers/RePEc/psm/wpaper/PRISM_wp_2024_01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maggie R. Jones & Emilia Simeonova & Randall Akee, 2020. "The EITC and Intergenerational Mobility," Working Papers 20-35, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    2. Marianne Page & Jessamyn Schaller & David Simon, 2019. "The Effects of Aggregate and Gender-Specific Labor Demand Shocks on Child Health," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(1), pages 37-78.
    3. Hilary Hoynes & Doug Miller & David Simon, 2015. "Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Infant Health," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 172-211, February.
    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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Otto Lenhart, 2021. "Earned income tax credit and crime," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(3), pages 589-607, July.
    2. Engel, Katherine & Marcotte, Dave E., 2024. "Baby bump? Birth month, family income, and early childhood development," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    3. Engel, Katherine & Morrissey, Taryn W., 2025. "The effect of New York State’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Program on birth outcomes," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Patralekha Ukil, 2025. "Economic Shocks and Infant Health: The Intergenerational Effects of Import Competition in the U.S," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 1121-1142, June.
    5. Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2025. "Revealed comparative disadvantage of infants: Exposure to NAFTA and birth outcomes," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    6. De Cao, Elisabetta & McCormick, Barry & Nicodemo, Catia, 2022. "Does unemployment worsen babies’ health? A tale of siblings, maternal behaviour, and selection," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Lyu, Wei & Wehby, George L. & Kaestner, Robert, 2025. "Effects of income on infant health: Evidence from the expanded child tax credit and pandemic stimulus checks," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    8. Pierce O’Reilly, 2018. "Tax policies for inclusive growth in a changing world," OECD Taxation Working Papers 40, OECD Publishing.
    9. George L. Wehby & Dhaval M. Dave & Robert Kaestner, 2020. "Effects of the Minimum Wage on Infant Health," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 411-443, March.
    10. Noghanibehambari, Hamid & Engelman, Michal, 2022. "Social insurance programs and later-life mortality: Evidence from new deal relief spending," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    11. Kelli A Komro & Phenesse Dunlap & Nolan Sroczynski & Melvin D Livingston & Megan A Kelly & Dawn Pepin & Sara Markowitz & Shelby Rentmeester & Alexander C Wagenaar, 2020. "Anti-poverty policy and health: Attributes and diffusion of state earned income tax credits across U.S. states from 1980 to 2020," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, November.
    12. Otto Lenhart, 2019. "The effects of state‐level earned income tax credits on suicides," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(12), pages 1476-1482, December.
    13. Collin, Daniel F. & Shields-Zeeman, Laura S. & Batra, Akansha & White, Justin S. & Tong, Michelle & Hamad, Rita, 2021. "The effects of state earned income tax credits on mental health and health behaviors: A quasi-experimental study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    14. Patralekha Ukil, 2019. "Parental Economic Shocks and Infant Health: The Effect of Import Competition in the U.S," Working papers 2019-18, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    15. 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.
    16. Verónica Amarante & Marco Manacorda & Edward Miguel & Andrea Vigorito, 2016. "Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Program, and Social Security Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 1-43, May.
    17. Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave & Nancy E. Reichman, 2018. "Evolution of the Infant Health Production Function," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 6-47, July.
    18. Pham, Tho & Talavera, Oleksandr & Tsapin, Andriy, 2018. "Shock contagion, asset quality and lending behavior," BOFIT Discussion Papers 21/2018, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    19. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Karbownik, Krzysztof, 2022. "The effects of incentivizing early prenatal care on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Marco Caliendo & Robert Mahlstedt & Gerard J. van den Berg & Johan Vikström, 2023. "Side effects of labor market policies," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(2), pages 339-375, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:psm:wpaper:202401. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Mark McGovern (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dhrutus.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.