# Can the Earned Income Tax Credit Reduce Disparities in Intergenerational Health Mobility?

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2022 · $71,090

## Abstract

This project will provide the first estimates of whether, and to what degree, public policy can
meaningfully disrupt the persistence of poor health and health disparities across generations. We
focus attention on the effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on intergenerational health mobility as the
EITC is one of the largest and possibly most effective anti-poverty programs in the United States (US).
Intergenerational mobility essentially measures equality of opportunity – a vision embraced by many
Americans – by quantifying the expected welfare of children relative to their parents. Equality of opportunity
would posit that children’s outcomes ought not be shaped by their parent’s characteristics. On the contrary,
children would have the opportunity to shape their own destiny unencumbered by the circumstances of their
parents. In the US, research identifies intergenerational persistence (the converse of mobility) in health and
socioeconomic status that varies by race/ethnicity and place – a clear departure from the ideal of equal
opportunities. Health could be a unique characteristic subjected to clear genetic influences that would naturally
persist across generations; however, research clearly identifies non-genetic components in intergenerational
health persistence that opens the door to public policy feasibly ameliorating health opportunity. Because the
EITC’s impacts and/or intergenerational health mobility is patterned by marital status, sex, and race/ethnicity,
we also examine whether the EITC disproportionately affects health mobility for disadvantaged groups and
investigate optimal timing of benefit receipt in childhood.
Using more than 11,000 parent-child pairs in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we estimate the effect of
the EITC on three established measures of intergenerational health mobility: intergenerational persistence,
upward, and downward health mobility (i.e., the expected health of children whose parents are in relatively
poor or good health, respectively). We distinguish our study from the often-descriptive intergenerational
mobility literature by employing a plausibly exogenous identification strategy to determine the effect of
EITC on health mobility. Eligibility for the EITC is based on the number of dependent children in the household.
Benefit generosity and eligibility however is, and has been, actively changing at the federal- and state-level
since its inception in 1975. It is this variation that we leverage (the number of children in the household, state of
residence, and time) to produce estimates of the EITC’s effect on health mobility. Due to the endogeneity of
eligibility and take-up at the individual level, we assign each child the maximum EITC benefit afforded to
children in their household type regardless of actual or observed EITC receipt, health, or income. Estimates
are therefore reflective of the intent to treat. Results could provide actionable pathways for federal and state
policymakers evaluati...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10509713
- **Project number:** 1R03HD109552-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Katie Jajtner Gottfredsen
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $71,090
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-15 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10509713

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10509713, Can the Earned Income Tax Credit Reduce Disparities in Intergenerational Health Mobility? (1R03HD109552-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10509713. Licensed CC0.

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