IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecdequ/v33y2019i3p170-186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Estimate of the Local Economic Impact of State-Level Earned Income Tax Credits

Author

Listed:
  • Eric James Stokan

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of state-level earned income tax credits on local economic outcomes (employment, wages, and establishments). The study employs difference-in-differences and triple-difference models to estimate the impact of these credits at the border of metropolitan areas where one side of the border adopts the credit between 1986 and 2012, and the other side of the border does not. Separate analyses are conducted for specific industries and subindustries. Synthetic control methods are used as a robustness check. The analyses suggest that state-level earned income tax credits do not have a significant impact on the local economic outcomes of metropolitan areas. At least one potential reason offered is that while these impacts are not a direct goal of the program, the credits may not be large enough to realize positive economic gains.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric James Stokan, 2019. "An Estimate of the Local Economic Impact of State-Level Earned Income Tax Credits," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(3), pages 170-186, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:33:y:2019:i:3:p:170-186
    DOI: 10.1177/0891242419858412
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891242419858412
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0891242419858412?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruce D. Meyer & Dan T. Rosenbaum, 2001. "Welfare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Labor Supply of Single Mothers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 1063-1114.
    2. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 772-793, September.
    3. Lawrence F. Katz, 1996. "Wage Subsidies for the Disadvantaged," NBER Working Papers 5679, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Travis St. Clair & Thomas D. Cook, 2015. "Difference-in-Differences Methods in Public Finance," Mathematica Policy Research Reports f0eca79db83a410d9d45f4329, Mathematica Policy Research.
    5. Alberto Abadie & Javier Gardeazabal, 2003. "The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 113-132, March.
    6. Michael A. Nelson, 2002. "Using Excise Taxes to Finance State Government: Do Neighboring State Taxation Policy and Cross‐Border Markets Matter?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(4), pages 731-752.
    7. Nada Eissa & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 1996. "Labor Supply Response to the Earned Income Tax Credit," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(2), pages 605-637.
    8. Coats, R. Morris, 1995. "A Note on Estimating Cross-Border Effects of State Cigarette Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 48(4), pages 573-84, December.
    9. Stephen G. Donald & Kevin Lang, 2007. "Inference with Difference-in-Differences and Other Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(2), pages 221-233, May.
    10. Thompson, Jeffrey P. & Rohlin, Shawn M., 2012. "The Effect of Sales Taxes on Employment: New Evidence From Cross-Border Panel Data Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(4), pages 1023-1041, December.
    11. Nada Eissa & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2006. "Behavioral Responses to Taxes: Lessons from the EITC and Labor Supply," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 73-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Scholz, John Karl, 1996. "In-Work Benefits in the United States: The Earned Income Tax Credit," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(434), pages 156-169, January.
    13. Romich, Jennifer L. & Weisner, Thomas, 2000. "How Families View and Use the EITC: Advance Payment Versus Lump Sum Delivery," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(4), pages 1245-1266, December.
    14. Lemieux, Thomas & Milligan, Kevin, 2008. "Incentive effects of social assistance: A regression discontinuity approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 807-828, February.
    15. Romich, Jennifer L. & Weisner, Thomas, 2000. "How Families View and Use the EITC: Advance Payment versus Lump Sum Delivery," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 4), pages 1245-66, December.
    16. Thomas J. Holmes, 1998. "The Effect of State Policies on the Location of Manufacturing: Evidence from State Borders," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(4), pages 667-705, August.
    17. Murphy, Kevin J., 2007. "The impact of unemployment insurance taxes on wages," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 457-484, June.
    18. Coats, R. Morris, 1995. "A Note on Estimating Cross-Border Effects of State Cigarette Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 48(4), pages 573-584, December.
    19. V. Joseph Hotz, 2003. "The Earned Income Tax Credit," NBER Chapters, in: Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, pages 141-198, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    21. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    22. Walsh, Michael J. & Jones, Jonathan D., 1988. "More Evidence on the "Border Tax" Effect: The Case of West Virginia, 1979-84," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 41(2), pages 261-65, June.
    23. Travis St. Clair & Thomas D. Cook, 2015. "Difference-in-Differences Methods in Public Finance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 68(2), pages 319-338, June.
    24. Huang, Rocco R., 2008. "Evaluating the real effect of bank branching deregulation: Comparing contiguous counties across US state borders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 678-705, March.
    25. David Card & Alan Krueger, 1993. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," Working Papers 694, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    26. Walsh, Michael J. & Jones, Jonathan D., 1988. "More Evidence on the "Border Tax" Effect: The Case of West Virginia, 1979-84," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 41(2), pages 261-265, June.
    27. Jennifer L. Romich & Thomas Weisner, 2000. "How Families View and Use the EITC: Advanced Payment versus Lump-sum Delivery," JCPR Working Papers 138, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    28. Rohlin, Shawn M., 2011. "State minimum wages and business location: Evidence from a refined border approach," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 103-117, January.
    29. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    30. Arindrajit Dube & T. William Lester & Michael Reich, 2010. "Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders: Estimates Using Contiguous Counties," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 945-964, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Ranjan, Priya & Neumark, David & Rodriguez-Lopez, Antonio, 2022. "What's across the Border? Re-Evaluating the Cross-Border Evidence on Minimum Wage Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 15282, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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. Leigh Andrew, 2010. "Who Benefits from the Earned Income Tax Credit? Incidence among Recipients, Coworkers and Firms," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-43, May.
    2. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    3. Kleven, Henrik, 2024. "The EITC and the extensive margin: A reappraisal," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    4. Bruce D. Meyer, 2010. "The Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Recent Reforms," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 24, pages 153-180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Elliott Isaac, 2020. "Marriage, Divorce, and Social Safety Net Policy," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(4), pages 1576-1612, April.
    6. Clemens, Jeffrey & Wither, Michael, 2019. "The minimum wage and the Great Recession: Evidence of effects on the employment and income trajectories of low-skilled workers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 53-67.
    7. H. Shaefer & Xiaoqing Song & Trina Williams Shanks, 2013. "Do single mothers in the United States use the Earned Income Tax Credit to reduce unsecured debt?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 659-680, December.
    8. Nada Eissa & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2006. "Behavioral Responses to Taxes: Lessons from the EITC and Labor Supply," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 73-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Julien Albertini & Arthur Poirier & Anthony Terriau, 2020. "The impact of EITC on education, labor market trajectories, and inequalities," Working Papers 2036, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    10. Tzu-Ting Yang, 2016. "Family Labor Supply and the Timing of Cash Transfers: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit," IEAS Working Paper : academic research 16-A012, Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
    11. Matthew D. Webb, 2023. "Reworking wild bootstrap‐based inference for clustered errors," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(3), pages 839-858, August.
    12. Nada Eissa & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2006. "Behavioral Responses to Taxes: Lessons from the EITC and Labor Supply," NBER Chapters,in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 73-110 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Chiu, Kevin, 2021. "The impact of certificate of need laws on heart attack mortality: Evidence from county borders," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    14. Stefano Cascino & Ane Tamayo & Felix Vetter, 2021. "Labor Market Effects of Spatial Licensing Requirements: Evidence from CPA Mobility," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 111-161, March.
    15. Shirley, Peter, 2018. "The response of commuting patterns to cross-border policy differentials: Evidence from the American Community Survey," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-16.
    16. Taylor K. Odle & Jennifer A. Delaney, 2022. "You are Admitted! Early Evidence on Enrollment from Idaho’s Direct Admissions System," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(6), pages 899-932, September.
    17. Florian Buhlmann & Benjamin Elsner & Andreas Peichl, 2018. "Tax refunds and income manipulation: evidence from the EITC," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(6), pages 1490-1518, December.
    18. Dale Belman & Paul Wolfson & Kritkorn Nawakitphaitoon, 2015. "Who Is Affected by the Minimum Wage?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 582-621, October.
    19. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2006. "Identification and Inference in Nonlinear Difference-in-Differences Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(2), pages 431-497, March.
    20. Belman, Dale. & Wolfson, Paul J., 2016. "What does the minimum wage do in developing countries? : A review of studies and methodologies," ILO Working Papers 994893283402676, International Labour Organization.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    earned income tax credit; economic impact;

    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:sae:ecdequ:v:33:y:2019:i:3:p:170-186. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.