The Effectiveness of the Food Stamp Program at Reducing Differences in the Intergenerational Persistence of Poverty
This working paper, released by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, investigates the effects of food assistance on racial disparities in the intergenerational persistence of poverty. Income transfers that reduce poverty during childhood can contribute to reduced poverty in adulthood and also reduce racial gaps.
Income Guarantee Policy Design: Implications for Poverty, Income Distribution, and Tax Rates
This analysis features a fundamental tax reform converting personal deductions and credits into an income guarantee along with higher marginal tax rates.
The Costs of Cutting Cash Assistance to Children and Families: Changing TANF work requirements could cost society up to $30 billion per year
This benefit-cost analysis examines the potential effects of the Limit, Save, Grow Act (H.R. 2811 in the 118th Congress) that would change state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) work participation requirements in ways that could result in states restricting or eliminating TANF cash assistance for families with children. Every $1 in TANF cash assistance payments lost to families per year would cost society $8 per year, with the worst case scenario costing society close to $30 billion per year.
The Antipoverty Effects of the Expanded Child Tax Credit Across States: Where Were the Historic Reductions Felt?
In this report published by The Hamilton Project at The Brookings Institution, CPSP affiliate Bradley Hardy and CPSP researchers examine the state variation in poverty reduction effects of the 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit. The greatest level of poverty reduction was seen in states with relatively lower costs of living and higher pre-expansion poverty rates.
The Case for a Federal Birth Grant: A Plan to Reduce Poverty for Newborns and their Families
This research brief examines the potential anti-poverty impact of a federal birth grant, including in combination with a child allowance. It shows that a birth grant can significantly reduce poverty rates among infants and their families during the first year post birth.
Intra-Year Employment Instability and Economic Well-Being Among Urban Households: Mitigating Effects of the Social Safety Net
This article examines the associations among employment status, income supports, poverty, and material hardship and whether the safety net buffers against financial hardship among households with unstable employment. Consistent unemployment is strongly associated with low income and poverty status, but not material hardship. Findings also suggest that cash transfers effectively buffer against the negative impact of persistent unemployment, while in-kind transfers appear more important for the unstably employed.
The Effects of Child Poverty Reductions on Child Protective Services Involvement and Placement into Out-of-Home Care
This article shows the reduction in child protective services involvement resulting from implementation of three of the policy packages from a recent National Academy of Sciences proposal to reduce child poverty: child allowance and expansions to the earned income tax credit; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; and the federal minimum wage.
The Effects of the New York City Minimum Wage Increases on Earnings, Poverty, and Material Hardship: Evidence from the Poverty Tracker
This report examines the impact that the New York City minimum wage increases in 2017, 2018, and 2019 had on low-wage workers in the Poverty Tracker sample, looking specifically at earnings, poverty, material hardship, employment, and benefit receipt. The increases contributed to a significant increase in annual earnings of minimum wage workers and did benefit workers that were more likely to face poverty and material hardship.
The Increased Antipoverty Effects of the Expanded Childless Earned Income Tax Credit in 2021
This fact sheet examines the impacts of the 2021 American Rescue Plan expansion of the childless portion of the Earned Income Tax Credit on poverty rates. For all childless adults, but especially for young adults, the temporary expansion of the childless Earned Income Tax Credit enhanced its antipoverty effects.
The Effects of the 2021 Monthly Child Tax Credit on Child and Family Well-Being: Evidence from New York City
This article uses data from two longitudinal studies of well-being in New York City to show that the 2021's expanded monthly Child Tax Credit led to significant declines in experiences of material hardship and multiple hardships, running out of money, and use of food pantries. It did not show evidence of the monthly payments reducing parents’ employment or affecting their mental health.
Exposure to Childhood Poverty and Racial Differences in Economic Opportunity in Young Adulthood
This article uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to reveal that racial differences in childhood poverty are more consequential than differential attainment of education, employment, and family formation benchmarks in shaping racial differences in young adult poverty.
State Child Tax Credits and Child Poverty: A 50-State Analysis
This report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University on behalf of Share Our Strength details state options on how to use state Child Tax Credits to dramatically reduce child poverty.
Research Roundup of the Expanded Child Tax Credit: One Year On
Since the introduction of the monthly Child Tax Credit in July 2021, a continuous stream of research has tracked its impact on children and their families. More than one year on, this updated research roundup reviews evidence through early November 2022, providing a richer understanding of the effects of the expanded Child Tax Credit while in place and the effects of its expiration.
No Evidence the Child Tax Credit Expansion Had an Effect on the Well-Being and Mental Health of Parents
Moderate-to-large cash transfers have been found to improve subjective well-being and mental health. In the case of the recent Child Tax Credit expansion, there was no evidence that it had a significant short-term impact on measures of life satisfaction, anxiety, and depression symptomology among adult recipients and the authors speculate that this may be due to the expansion’s temporary nature.
The 2021 Child Tax Credit Expansion: Child Poverty Reduction and the Children Formerly Left Behind
This policy brief shows how well the expanded Child Tax Credit did in reducing child poverty relative to prior law. It simulates the pre-ARP version of the Child Tax Credit in 2021 data and compares the actual child poverty reduction in 2021 to what it would have been absent the expansion.
A Step in the Right Direction: The Expanded Child Tax Credit Would Move the United States’ High Child Poverty Rate Closer to Peer Nations
The United States has one of the highest rates of child poverty among wealthy democracies. The expanded Child Tax Credit would move the U.S. child poverty rate closer to the mainstream: from 31st to 24th among the 34 advanced democracies with comparable data.
The Benefits and Costs of a U.S. Child Allowance
This benefit-cost analysis of a U.S. child allowance indicates that making the $2000 Child Tax Credit fully refundable and increasing benefits to $3000/$3600 would cost $97 billion per year and generate social benefits of $929 billion per year, a very strong return for the U.S. population.
Keeping Up with Inflation: How policy indexation can enhance poverty reduction
As families across the United States contend with record-high inflation, the values of several government benefits and tax credits are not keeping up. This paper, published by the Century Foundation, examines the antipoverty potential of one policy, the expanded Child Tax Credit, under different scenarios to shine a spotlight on the importance of inflation indexation for optimizing the antipoverty effects of government policies.
Comparing the Performance of Monthly Poverty Measures
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the problem of using a once-per-year, annual poverty measure to make pressing policy decisions. This prompted researchers to develop methods to provide more timely estimates of poverty. This paper compares two monthly poverty measures—one developed by Parolin, Curran, Matsudaira, Waldfogel, and Wimer and the other by Han, Meyer, and Sullivan—to assess their performance relative to external benchmarks of material hardship and mental health challenges.
Estimating Monthly Poverty Rates in the United States
Official poverty estimates for the United States are presented annually and with a considerable lag. This study introduces a framework to produce monthly poverty estimates.