IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/jecper/v36y2022i2p149-74.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Children and the US Social Safety Net: Balancing Disincentives for Adults and Benefits for Children

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Aizer
  • Hilary Hoynes
  • Adriana Lleras-Muney

Abstract

Economic research on the safety net has evolved over time, moving away from a focus on the negative incentive effects of means-tested assistance on employment, earnings, marriage, and fertility to include the potential positive benefits of such programs to children. Initially, this research on benefits to children focused on short-run impacts, but as we accumulated knowledge about skill production and better data became available, the research evolved further to include important long-run economic outcomes such as employment, earnings, and mortality. Once the positive long-run benefits to children are considered, many safety net programs are cost-effective. However, the current government practice of limiting the time horizon for cost-benefit calculations of policy initiatives often fails to take this into account. Finally, we discuss why child poverty in the United States is still higher than most OECD countries and how research on children and the safety net can better inform policy-making.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Aizer & Hilary Hoynes & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2022. "Children and the US Social Safety Net: Balancing Disincentives for Adults and Benefits for Children," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 149-174, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:36:y:2022:i:2:p:149-74
    DOI: 10.1257/jep.36.2.149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/jep.36.2.149
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E163181V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/jep.36.2.149.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/jep.36.2.149.ds
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/jep.36.2.149?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
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gromadzki, Jan, 2023. "Labor Supply Effects of a Universal Cash Transfer," IZA Discussion Papers 16186, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Ray Rees & Thor O. Thoresen & Trine E. Vattø, 2023. "Alternatives to Paying Child Benefit to the Rich: Means‐Testing or Higher Tax?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 56(3), pages 328-354, September.
    3. Kaufmann, Katja Maria & Özdemir, Yasemin & Ye, Han, 2022. "Spillover Effects of Old-Age Pension across Generations: Family Labor Supply and Child Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 15388, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Alan J. Auerbach & Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Daniel Murphy, 2022. "Demand Stimulus as Social Policy," NBER Working Papers 30498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Cheng Lin & Adel Daoud & Maria Branden, 2022. "To What Extent Do Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Mediate Social Assistance Dependency? Evidence from Sweden," Papers 2206.04773, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    6. Sherry Glied, 2022. "Presidential Address: Connecting the Dots: Turning Research Evidence into Evidence for Policymaking," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 676-682, June.
    7. Louis Kaplow, 2022. "Optimal Income Taxation," NBER Working Papers 30199, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Nicardo S. McInnis & Katherine Michelmore & Natasha Pilkauskas, 2023. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty and Public Assistance: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit," NBER Working Papers 31429, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Achyuta Adhvaryu & N. Meltem Daysal & Snaebjorn Gunnsteinsson & Teresa Molina & Herdis Steingrimsdottir, 2023. "Child Health, Parental Well-Being, and the Social Safety Net," CEBI working paper series 23-02, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    10. Janet C. Gornick & Laurie C. Maldonado & Amanda Sheely, 2022. "Effective Policies for Single-Parent Families and Prospects for Policy Reforms in the United States: Concluding Reflections," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 702(1), pages 236-251, July.
    11. Amelia A. Hawkins & Christopher A. Hollrah & Sarah Miller & Laura R. Wherry & Gloria Aldana & Mitchell D. Wong, 2023. "The Long-Term Effects of Income for At-Risk Infants: Evidence from Supplemental Security Income," NBER Working Papers 31746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Manasi Deshpande & Rebecca Dizon-Ross, 2023. "The (Lack of) Anticipatory Effects of the Social Safety Net on Human Capital Investment," NBER Working Papers 31512, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Adriana Lleras‐Muney, 2022. "Education and income gradients in longevity: The role of policy," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(1), pages 5-37, February.
    14. David J. Deming, 2022. "Four Facts about Human Capital," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 75-102, Summer.
    15. Hema Shah & Lisa A. Gennetian, 2024. "Unconditional cash transfers for families with children in the U.S.: a scoping review," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 415-450, June.
    16. Joseph Mullins, 2022. "Designing Cash Transfers in the Presence of Children's Human Capital Formation," Working Papers 2022-019, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    17. Schanzenbach, Diane Whitmore, 2023. "Understanding SNAP: An overview of recent research," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

    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:aea:jecper:v:36:y:2022:i:2:p:149-74. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.