Three Reasons Why Providing Cash to Families With Children Is a Sound Policy Investment
End Notes
[1] Lisa A. Gennetian is the Pritzer Professor of Early Learning Policy Studies, Stanford School of Public Policy, Duke University; Katherine Magnuson is the Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work.
[2] Douglas Almond, Hilary W. Hoynes, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, “Inside the War on Poverty: The Impact of Food Stamps on Birth Outcomes,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 93, No. 2, May 2011, https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article/93/2/387/58599/Inside-the-War-on-Poverty-The-Impact-of-Food.
[3] Gordon B. Dahl and Lance Lochner, “The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit,” American Economic Review, Vol. 102, No. 5, August 2012, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.102.5.1927; Gordon B. Dahl and Lance Lochner, “The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit: Reply,” American Economic Review, Vol. 107, No. 2, February 2017, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20161329; Greg J. Duncan, Pamela A. Morris, and Chris Rodrigues, “Does Money Really Matter? Estimating Impacts of Family Income on Young Children’s Achievement with Data from Random-Assignment Experiments,” Developmental Psychology, Vol. 47, No. 5, September 2011, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3208322/.
[4] Randall K.Q. Akee et al., “Parents’ Incomes and Children’s Outcomes: A Quasi-Experiment Using Transfer Payments from Casino Profits,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 2010, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.2.1.86; John Anders, Andrew Barr, and Alexander A. Smith, “The Effect of Early Childhood Education on Adult Criminality: Evidence from the 1960s through 1990s,” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (forthcoming), accessed February 14, 2022, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20200660&from=f; Andrew Barr and Alexander A. Smith, “Fighting Crime in the Cradle: The Effects of Early Childhood Access to Nutritional Assistance,” Journal of Human Resources, published online before print, April 13, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.58.3.0619-10276R2.
[5] Anna Aizer et al., “The Long-Run Impact of Cash Transfers to Poor Families,” American Economic Review, Vol. 106, No. 4, April 2016, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20140529; Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence F. Katz, “The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment,” American Economic Review, Vol. 106, No. 4, April 2016, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20150572; Hilary Hoynes, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, and Douglas Almond, “Long-Run Impacts of Childhood Access to the Safety Net,” American Economic Review, Vol. 106, No. 4, April 2016, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20130375.
[6] Chloe East, “The Effect of Food Stamps on Children’s Health: Evidence from Immigrants’ Changing Eligibility,” Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 55, No. 2, 2018, pp. 387-427.
[7] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Consequences of Child Poverty,” A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, National Academies Press, 2019, https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25246/a-roadmap-to-reducing-child-poverty.
[8] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, op. cit.; Jack P. Shonkoff and Philip A. Fisher, “Rethinking evidence-based practice and two-generation programs to create the future of early childhood policy,” Development and psychopathology, Vol. 25, No. 4 (pt. 2), 2013, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579413000813.
[9] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “Poor children in rich countries: why we need policy action,” Policy Brief on Child Well-Being, OECD Publishing, 2018.
[10] Figure 14 in Hilary Hoynes, Marianne Bitler, and Diane Schanzenbach, “The Social Safety Net in the Wake of COVID19,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, BPEA Conference Drafts, June 25, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Bitler-et-al-conference-draft.pdf.
[11] Susan J. Lambert, Julia R. Henly, and Jaeseung Kim, “Precarious Work Schedules as a Source of Economic Insecurity and Institutional Distrust” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of The Social Sciences, Vol. 5, No. 4, September 2019, pp. 218-257.
[12] Katherine Abraham and Susan Houseman, “The Importance of Informal Work in Supplementing Household Income,” WE Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Upjohn Institute Policy Research Brief, November 6, 2019; Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider, The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty, Princeton University Press, 2017, https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691172989/the-financial-diaries.
[13] Bradley Hardy and James P. Ziliak, “Decomposing Trends in Income Volatility: The ‘Wild Ride’ at the Top and Bottom,” Economic Inquiry, Vol. 52, No. 1, January 2014, http://www.bradleyhardy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Hardy-Ziliak-2014-Final-EI.pdf; Sharon Wolf et al., “Patterns of income instability among low‐ and middle‐income families with children,” Family Relations, Vol. 63, No. 3, pp. 397-410, doi:10.1111/fare.12067; Anna Gassman-Pines and Lisa A. Gennetian, “COVID-19 job and income loss jeopardize child well-being: Income support policies can help,” Society for Research in Child Development, Child Evidence Brief No. 9, December 2020.
[14] Morduch and Schneider, op. cit.
[15] Christina Gibson-Davis, Lisa A. Keister, and Lisa A. Gennetian, “Net Worth Poverty in Child Households by Race and Ethnicity, 1989–2019,” Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 83, No. 3, June 2021, https://nyuscholars.nyu.edu/en/publications/net-worth-poverty-in-child-households-by-race-and-ethnicity-19892.
[16] Federal Reserve Board of Governors, “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2018 - May 2019,” https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2019-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2018-dealing-with-unexpected-expenses.htm.
[17] Marianne Bitler et al., “Safety-Net Programs Underused by Eligible Hispanic Families” Center for Poverty and Inequality Research Policy Brief, Vol. 10, No. 7, April 2022, https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/sites/main/files/file-attachments/bitler_hispanic_safety_net_brief.pdf?1649014263.
[18] Bradley Hardy, Heather Hill, and Jennifer Romich, “Strengthening Social Programs to Promote Economic Stability During Childhood,” Society for Research in Child Development, Social Policy Report, Vol. 32, No. 2, August 2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/sop2.4.
[19] Lisa A. Gennetian and Eldar Shafir, “The Persistence of Poverty in the Context of Financial Instability: A Behavioral Perspective.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 34, No. 4, Fall 2015, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15206688/2015/34/4; Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir. Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, Picador, 2013, https://behavioralscientist.org/scarcity-excerpt-mullainathan-shafir/.
[20] Jennie E. Brand, “The far-reaching impact of job loss and unemployment,” Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 41, pp. 359-375; Anika Schenck-Fontaine and Anna Gassman-Pines, “Income inequality and child maltreatment risk during economic recession,” Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 112, May 2020; Anika Schenck-Fontaine et al., “Local Job Losses and Child Maltreatment: The Importance of Community Context,” Social Service Review, Vol. 91, No. 2, June 2017.
[21] Gennetian and Shafir, op. cit.; Lisa A. Gennetian et al., “Stability of income and school attendance among NYC students of low-income families,” Economics of Education Review, Vol. 63, April 2018, doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.01.003; Lisa A. Gennetian et al., “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit cycles and student disciplinary infractions,” Social Services Review, Vol. 90, No. 3, September 2016, pp. 403-33.
[22] Gennetian and Shafir, op. cit.; Gennetian et al. (2018), op. cit.; Hardy and Ziliak, op. cit.
[23] Anna Gassman-Pines and Laura Bellows, “Food Instability and Academic Achievement: A Quasi-Experiment Using SNAP Benefit Timing,” American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 55, No. 5, https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0002831218761337.
[24] Megan A. Curran, “Research Roundup of the Expanded Child Tax Credit: The First 6 Months,” Poverty & Social Policy Report, Vol. 5, No. 5, December 22, 2021, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/610831a16c95260dbd68934a/t/61f946b1cb0bb75fd2ca03ad/1643726515657/Child-Tax-Credit-Research-Roundup-CPSP-2021.pdf; Kris Cox et al., “If Congress Fails to Act, Monthly Child Tax Credit Payments Will Stop, Child Poverty Reductions Will Be Lost,” CBPP, updated December 3, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/if-congress-fails-to-act-monthly-child-tax-credit-payments-will-stop-child.
[25] Lisa A Gennetian et al., “Behavioral Insights into Cash Transfers to Families with Children,” Behavioral Science and Policy Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2021, 10.1353/BSP.2021.0003.
[26] Randall Akee et al., “Family income and the intergenerational transmission of voting behavior: evidence from an income intervention,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 24770, June 2018, https://www.nber.org/papers/w24770.
[27] Sarah Halpern-Meekin et al., It’s Not Like I’m Poor: How Working Families Make Ends Meet in a Post-Welfare World, University of California Press, 2015, https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520275355/its-not-like-im-poor; Morduch and Schneider, op. cit.
[28] David K. Evans and Anna Popova, “Cash Transfers and Temptation Goods,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 65, No. 2, January 2017, https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/689575.