Working Paper: NBER ID: w30632
Authors: Jonathan Meer; Joshua Witter
Abstract: Most antipoverty policy in the United States focuses on families with children, but efforts to assist childless adults have gained traction in recent years. We examine the impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit on the labor force outcomes of childless adults using the age-25 eligibility discontinuity. We find no impacts on labor force participation and employment outcomes, which may be due to lack of information about the credit, lack of behavioral response due to its small size, or that childless adults already have very high labor force participation rates.
Keywords: Earned Income Tax Credit; Labor Force Participation; Childless Adults; Regression Discontinuity
JEL Codes: H22; H24; J20
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| EITC eligibility (H31) | behavioral changes in labor force participation (J29) |
| EITC eligibility (H31) | labor force participation (J22) |
| EITC eligibility (H31) | employment outcomes (J68) |
| EITC eligibility in year t (H31) | labor force participation in year t+1 (J49) |
| EITC eligibility in year t (H31) | employment outcomes in year t+1 (J68) |