The U.S. Earned Income Tax Credit, its Effects, and Possible Reforms

Bruce Meyer

No 720, Working Papers from Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago

Abstract: In this paper, I first summarize how the U.S. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) operates and describe the characteristics of recipients. I then discuss empirical work on the effects of the EITC on poverty and income distribution, and its effects on labor supply. Next, I discuss a few policy concerns about the EITC: possible negative effects on hours of work and marriage, and problems of compliance with the tax system. I then briefly discuss some possible reforms to the structure of the current EITC.

Keywords: EITC; poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-pbe and nep-pub
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/about/publication ... ers/pdf/wp_07_20.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The US earned income tax credit, its effects, and possible reforms (2008)
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:har:wpaper:0720

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Eleanor Cartelli ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).