Demographic, Economic, and Geographic Factors Associated with Uptake of the Earned Income Tax Credit

• Published in: Journal of policy practice and research (Online) Vol. 3; no. 3; pp. 241 - 258
• Main Authors: Lanier, Paul, Afonso, Whitney, Chung, Gerard, Bryant, Katherine, Ellis, Danny, Coffey, Alexandria, Brown-Graham, Anita, Verbiest, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.09.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: African Americans; Bipartisanship; Children & youth; Community and Environmental Psychology; Counties; Earned income tax credit; Earnings; Economic factors; Ethnicity; Families & family life; Food stamps; Households; Income taxes; Original Paper; Pandemics; Participation; Policy making; Poverty; Rural urban differences; Rurality; Social Policy; Social Sciences; Social Work; Welfare; Workers; United States > US; Rural; Participation; Earned Income Tax Credit; Race
• ISSN: 2662-1517; 2662-1517
• DOI: 10.1007/s42972-022-00054-5

The US federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is an economic support program for low- and moderate-income workers. About 80% of individuals eligible for the EITC participate in the program. However, improving awareness and full uptake of the EITC program has proven a challenge, and few studies have examined factors associated with EITC participation. The purpose of this study was to use county-level data to model the association of demographic, geographic, and economic factors with EITC participation rates in North Carolina from 2010 to 2017. We calculated three rates of EITC uptake: per capita, per persons in poverty, and per persons with low-income. Multilevel linear growth modeling was used to examine between-county variability in within-county trajectories of change in EITC uptake. County rurality and proximity to Internal Revenue Service Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites were not associated with EITC participation. We found no evidence that residents of urban and rural counties had differences in EITC uptake but findings suggest that counties with larger proportions of African American, Hispanic, and Native American individuals had higher levels of uptake. Our findings have implications for policymakers and researchers seeking to understand EITC participation and set an empirical foundation for future research.