Race, Marriage, and the Earned Income Tax Credit

J. Sebastian Leguizamon (), Susane Leguizamon () and James Alm ()
Additional contact information
J. Sebastian Leguizamon: Western Kentucky University
Susane Leguizamon: Western Kentucky University

No 2506, Working Papers from Tulane University, Department of Economics

Abstract: It is increasingly recognized that race interacts in important ways with taxation, including taxation of the family. In this paper, we quantify the racial disparity in the magnitude of the "marriage penalty" or "marriage bonus" in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) using individual micro-level data from the Current Population Survey from 1992 to 2019. We find that among households experiencing a penalty, low-income Black households' is, on average, 22 percent larger than that for low-income white households, even when their family income levels are largely the same. These racial inequities are troubling, given the impact of this program on low-income individuals across the United States.

Keywords: EITC; Marriage; taxable unit; marriage penalty and bonus; race (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H24 J12 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul2506.pdf First Version, November 2025 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tul:wpaper:2506

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Tulane University, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Nicholas Lacoste ().