Anti-poverty policy and health: Attributes and diffusion of state earned income tax credits across U.S. states from 1980 to 2020

The U.S. federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is often considered the most effective antipoverty program for families in the U.S., leading to a variety of improved outcomes such as educational attainment, work incentives, economic activity, income, and health benefits for mothers, infants and chi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one 2020-11, Vol.15 (11), p.e0242514-e0242514
Main Authors:	Komro, Kelli A, Dunlap, Phenesse, Sroczynski, Nolan, Livingston, Melvin D, Kelly, Megan A, Pepin, Dawn, Markowitz, Sara, Rentmeester, Shelby, Wagenaar, Alexander C
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Analysis Children & youth Childrens health Diffusion Disease control Earned income tax credit Economic conditions Economic policy Empirical analysis Enrollments Families & family life Health education Health status indicators Health surveillance Humans Incentives Income Income tax Income Tax - statistics & numerical data Income taxes Infants Laws, regulations and rules Legal research Legislation Medicine and Health Sciences Outcome Assessment, Health Care - statistics & numerical data People and Places Poverty Poverty - prevention & control Public health Public Health - legislation & jurisprudence Public Policy - legislation & jurisprudence Quality assessment Research methodology Research methods Robustness (mathematics) Science Policy Social Sciences State finance Statistics Tax credits Taxation United States Workers
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Summary:	The U.S. federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is often considered the most effective antipoverty program for families in the U.S., leading to a variety of improved outcomes such as educational attainment, work incentives, economic activity, income, and health benefits for mothers, infants and children. State EITC supplements to the federal credit can significantly enhance the magnitude of this intervention. In this paper we advance EITC and health research by: 1) describing the diffusion of state EITC policies over 40 years, 2) presenting patterns in important EITC policy dimensions across space and time, and 3) disseminating a robust data set to advance future research by policy analysts and scientists. We used current public health law research methods to systematically collect, conduct textual legal analysis, and numerically code all EITC legislative changes from 1980 through 2020 in the 50 states and Washington, D.C. First, the pattern of diffusion across states and time shows initial introductions during the 1990s in the Midwest, then spreading to the Northeast, with more recent expansions in the West and South. Second, differences by state and time of important policy dimensions are evident, including size of credit and refundability. Third, state EITC benefits vary considerably by household structure. Continued research on health outcomes is warranted to capture the full range of potential beneficial effects of EITCs on family and child wellbeing. Lawyers and policy analysts can collaborate with epidemiologists and economists on other high-quality empirical studies to assess the many dimensions of policy and law that potentially affect the social determinants of health.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203