What We Learned from the 2021 Child Tax Credit Expansion

Timothy M. Smeeding

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2023, vol. 710, issue 1, 229-244

Abstract: The 2021 expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) greatly increased the amount of financial support that families received from the credit and guaranteed the fully refundable benefit to all lower-income families with children, while continuing to pay half of the annual benefits monthly. Child poverty fell to its lowest level ever (5.2 percent) after the expansion but returned to its pre-pandemic level (12.4 percent) in 2022 upon the expansion’s elimination. Notwithstanding the fact that a number of research questions about the exact effects of the 2021 expansion are yet to be answered, the articles in this volume present a strong case for a continued economic and social investment in the form of a longer-term child allowance. This summary discusses a number of key design issues for policies that aim to reduce child poverty, and I argue for research that can further substantiate the effects of a fully refundable CTC.

Keywords: full refundability; monthly benefits; policy design; child allowance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:710:y:2023:i:1:p:229-244

DOI: 10.1177/00027162241272320

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