The Health Effects Of Expanding The Earned Income Tax Credit: Results From New York City

• Published in: Health affairs (Millwood, Va.) Vol. 39; no. 7; pp. 1149 - 5
• Main Authors: Courtin, Emilie, Aloisi, Kali, Miller, Cynthia, Allen, Heidi L, Katz, Lawrence F, Muennig, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 01.07.2020
• Subjects: Child; Child poverty; Children & youth; Clinical trials; Earned income tax credit; Earnings; Employment; Families & family life; Female; Food programs; Health status; Humans; Income; Income Tax; Income taxes; Intervention; Life control; Low income groups; Mortality rates; New York City; Poverty; Quality of Life; Randomization; Socioeconomic factors; Tax returns; Taxation; Taxes; United States; Women; New York City; United States; United States > US; New York City New York; Payment; Tax credits; Health policy; Low income; Taxes; Education; Health effects; Children's health; Quality of life
• ISSN: 0278-2715; 1544-5208
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01556

Antipoverty policies may hold promise as tools to improve health and reduce mortality rates among low-income Americans. We examined the health effects of the New York City Paycheck Plus randomized controlled trial. Paycheck Plus tests the impact of a potential fourfold increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income Americans without dependent children. Starting in 2015, Paycheck Plus offered 5,968 study participants a credit of up to $2,000 at tax time (treatment) or the standard credit of about $500 (control). Health-related quality of life and other outcomes for a representative subset of these participants ( = 3,289) were compared to those of a control group thirty-two months after randomization. The intervention had a modest positive effect on employment and earnings, particularly among women. It had no effect on health-related quality of life for the overall sample, but women realized significant improvements.