Do Larger Earned Income Tax Credit and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits Create Complementary Effects on Child Development?

ABSTRACT: Poverty is particularly concerning during early childhood and the early school years, as it can negatively impact child development both in the short and long term. To alleviate economic hardship, the U.S. government provides a patchwork of income support policies. This paper examines two of the largest programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which low-income working families often receive simultaneously. This paper is the first to explore whether these benefits interact to influence children's early cognitive development in families receiving both programs. To address endogeneity of program benefits, I use a two-way (child and year) fixed effects model to leverage the variation in the maximum federal and state EITC benefits s

SUBMITTER: Hong YS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12827319 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature