IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tul/wpaper/2507.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Do Gender, Race, and Earnings Affect the EITC Marriage Penalty/Bonus?

Author

Listed:
  • J. Sebastian Leguizamon

    (Western Kentucky University)

  • Susane Leguizamon

    (Western Kentucky University)

  • James Alm

    (Tulane University)

Abstract

In this paper, we quantify the ways by which gender, race, and earnings differentials affect the magnitude of the "marriage penalty" or "marriage bonus" in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) using individual micro-level data from the Current Population Survey from 2010 to 2018. Our results show that on average Black couples experience a larger EITC marriage penalty (or a smaller EITC marriage bonus) than white couples. This differential is due mainly to gender differences across race in household income splits, in dependents, and in earnings levels. It is neither surprising nor accidental that these three factors are also the main determinants of the EITC benefit itself.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Sebastian Leguizamon & Susane Leguizamon & James Alm, 2025. "How Do Gender, Race, and Earnings Affect the EITC Marriage Penalty/Bonus?," Working Papers 2507, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tul:wpaper:2507
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul2507.pdf
    File Function: First Version, November 2025
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    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:tul:wpaper:2507. 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: Nicholas Lacoste (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/detulus.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.