The Earned Income Tax Credit and Infant Health Revisited

Daniel Dench and Ted Joyce

No 26476, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Hoynes, Miller and Simon (2015), henceforth HMS, report that the national expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is associated with decreases in low birth weight. We question their findings. HMS’s difference-in-differences estimates are unidentified in some comparisons, while failed placebo tests undermine others. Their effects lack a plausible mechanism as the association between the EITC and prenatal smoking also fails placebo tests. We contend that the waning of the crack epidemic is a possible confound, but we show that any number of policies directed at poor women also eliminate the effect of the EITC when aggregated to the national level. Identifying small, causal effects of a national policy at a single point in time is exceedingly challenging.

JEL-codes: H24 I38 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-lab, nep-pbe and nep-pub
Note: CH EH
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Daniel Dench & Theodore Joyce, 2020. "The earned income tax credit and infant health revisited," Health Economics, vol 29(1), pages 72-84.

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