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The Long-Run Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Women’s Earnings

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  • David Neumark
  • Peter Shirley

Abstract

Using longitudinal data on marriage and children from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1967 to 2016, we characterize women’s exposure to the federal and state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) during their first two decades of adulthood. We use measures of this exposure to estimate the long-run effects of the EITC on women’s labor market outcomes as mature adults, specifically at age 40. Our results suggest that exposure to a more generous EITC when women were unmarried and had older (school-age) children leads to higher earnings in the longer-run, and we find corresponding evidence suggesting that longer-run exposure of unmarried mothers to a more generous EITC increases cumulative labor market experience. Additionally, we find evidence to suggest that exposure to a more generous EITC when women had children while married leads to lower earnings and hours in the longer-run. For both groups, adjustments in hours worked along the intensive margin appear to drive these results. These longer-run effects are consistent with what we would expect from the short-run effects of the EITC on employment and hours predicted by theory and documented in other work.

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  • David Neumark & Peter Shirley, 2017. "The Long-Run Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Women’s Earnings," NBER Working Papers 24114, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24114
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    Cited by:

    1. Rothwell, David W. & Weber, Bruce & Giordono, Leanne, 2019. "The Oregon Earned Income Credit’s Impact on Child Poverty," OSF Preprints h6w3g, Center for Open Science.
    2. Peter Levell & Barra Roantree & Jonathan Shaw, 2021. "Mobility and the lifetime distributional impact of tax and transfer reforms," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(4), pages 751-793, August.
    3. Elira Kuka & Na'ama Shenhav, 2024. "Long-Run Effects of Incentivizing Work after Childbirth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(6), pages 1692-1722, June.
    4. David Neumark & Brian Asquith & Brittany Bass, 2020. "Longer‐Run Effects Of Anti‐Poverty Policies On Disadvantaged Neighborhoods," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(3), pages 409-434, July.
    5. Harkness, Susan, 2022. "The accumulation of disadvantage: how motherhood and relationship breakdown influence married and single mothers’ economic outcomes," ISER Working Paper Series 2022-03, Institute for Social and Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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