Going without
Dignity and Dreams: What the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Means to Low-Income Families
Jennifer Sykes et al.
American Sociological Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Money has meaning that shapes its uses and social significance, including the monies low-income families draw on for survival: wages, welfare, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This study, based on in-depth interviews with 115 low-wage EITC recipients, reveals the EITC is an unusual type of government transfer. Recipients of the EITC say they value the debt relief this government benefit brings. However, they also perceive it as a just reward for work, which legitimizes a temporary increase in consumption. Furthermore, unlike other means-tested government transfers, the credit is seen as a springboard for upward mobility. Thus, by conferring dignity and spurring dreams, the EITC enhances feelings of citizenship and social inclusion.
----------------------
Amir Sariaslan et al.
British Journal of Psychiatry, forthcoming
Aims: To investigate whether childhood family income predicts subsequent violent criminality and substance misuse and whether the associations are in turn explained by unobserved familial risk factors.
Method: Nationwide Swedish quasi-experimental, family-based study following cohorts born 1989-1993 (ntotal = 526 167, ncousins = 262 267, nsiblings = 216 424) between the ages of 15 and 21 years.
Results: Children of parents in the lowest income quintile experienced a seven-fold increased hazard rate (HR) of being convicted of violent criminality compared with peers in the highest quintile (HR = 6.78, 95% CI 6.23-7.38). This association was entirely accounted for by unobserved familial risk factors (HR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.44-2.03). Similar pattern of effects was found for substance misuse.
Conclusions: There were no associations between childhood family income and subsequent violent criminality and substance misuse once we had adjusted for unobserved familial risk factors.
----------------------
Marlene Camacho-Rivera et al.
Journal of Urban Health, August 2014, Pages 661-676
Abstract:
Although racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and neighborhood factors have been linked to asthma, and the association between indoor allergens and asthma is well documented, few studies have examined the relationship between these factors and indoor allergens. We examined the frequency of reported indoor allergens and differences by racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and neighborhood characteristics among a diverse sample of Los Angeles households. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to analyze the data from 723 households from wave 2 of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey. The reported presence of rats, mice, cockroaches, mold, pets, and tobacco smoke were the primary outcomes of interest. Hispanic and Asian households had a nearly threefold increase in the odds of reporting cockroaches compared to non-Hispanic Whites (OR, 2.85; 95 % CI 1.38–5.88 and OR, 2.62; 95 % CI 1.02–6.73, respectively) even after adjusting for socioeconomic factors. Primary caregivers who had obtained a high school degree were significantly less likely to report the presence of mice and cockroaches compared to primary caregivers with less than a high school degree (OR, 0.19; 95 % CI 0.08–0.46 and OR, 0.39; 95 % CI 0.23–0.68, respectively). Primary caregivers with more than a high school degree were also less likely to report the presence of rats, mice, and cockroaches within their households, compared to those with less than a high school degree. Compared to renters, home owners were less likely to report the presence of mice, cockroaches, and mold within their households. At the neighborhood level, households located within neighborhoods of high concentrated poverty (where the average poverty rate is at least 50 %) were more likely to report the presence of mice and cockroaches compared to households in low concentrated poverty neighborhoods (average poverty rate is 10 % or less), after adjusting for individual race/ethnicity and socioeconomic characteristics. Our study found evidence in support of neighborhood-level racial/ethnic and socioeconomic influences on indoor allergen exposure, above and beyond individual factors. Future studies should continue to explore individual and neighborhood-level racial/ethnic and socioeconomic differences in household allergen exposures across diverse contexts.
----------------------
The Role of Poverty and Chaos in the Development of Task Persistence Among Adolescents
Thomas Fuller-Rowell et al.
Journal of Research on Adolescence, forthcoming
Abstract:
Late adolescents (N = 256; Mage = 17.5) who spent a larger proportion of their early life in poverty exhibited less persistence when confronted by a challenging task. Greater chaos during early adolescence also predicted less task persistence at age 17. However, the effects of poverty were moderated by chaos such that if chaos levels were high during early adolescence, task persistence was uniformly lower among late adolescents, irrespective of childhood poverty. Only when chaos levels were relatively low did poverty matter for future task persistence. Furthermore, the interactive effects of chaos and early childhood poverty were independent of child ability, and of concurrent chaos and poverty.
----------------------
Physical and mental health outcomes following housing improvements: Evidence from the GoWell study
Angela Curl et al.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, forthcoming
Background: Existing research points towards physical and mental health gains from housing improvements, but findings are inconsistent and often not statistically significant. The detailed characteristics and variability of housing improvement works are problematic and studies are often small, not experimental, with short follow-up times.
Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used to assess the impact on physical health and mental health (using SF-12v2 Physical and Mental health component summary scales) of four types of housing improvement works — central heating, ‘Secured By Design’ front doors, fabric works, kitchens and bathrooms — both singly and in pairwise combinations. A longitudinal sample of 1933 residents from 15 deprived communities in Glasgow, UK was constructed from surveys carried out in 2006, 2008 and 2011. Sociodemographic characteristics and changes in employment status were taken into account.
Results: Fabric works had positive associations with physical health (+2.09, 95% CI 0.13 to 4.04) and mental health (+1.84, 95% CI 0.04 to 3.65) in 1–2 years. Kitchens and bathrooms had a positive association with mental health in 1–2 years (+2.58, 95% CI 0.79 to 4.36). Central heating had a negative association with physical health (−2.21, 95% CI −3.74 to −0.68). New front doors had a positive association with mental health in <1 year (+5.89, 95% CI 0.65 to 11.14) and when provided alongside kitchens and bathrooms (+4.25, 95% CI 1.71 to 6.80). Gaining employment had strong associations with physical health (+7.14, 95% CI 4.72 to 9.55) as well as mental health (+5.50, 95% CI 3.27 to 7.73).
Conclusions: Fabric works may provide insulation benefits and visual amenity benefits to residents. Front doors may provide important security benefits in deprived communities. Economic regeneration is important alongside property-led regeneration.
----------------------
Poverty Concentration, Job Access, and Employment Outcomes
Lingqian Hu & Genevieve Giuliano
Journal of Urban Affairs, forthcoming
Abstract:
Existing literature suggests that both access to jobs and poverty concentration can affect poor job seekers’ employment outcomes, but no research has tested the two factors together or examined how their effects interact. In this article, we examine the effects of job accessibility in places of various degrees of poverty concentrations, focusing on the employment status and commute distance of the poor. Using the Los Angeles metropolitan area as the case study, we find that spatial access does not explain unequal employment status of the poor: the association between access and employment status is insignificant in almost all places regardless of the poverty rates. Poor job seekers cannot take advantage of proximity to jobs even if they live in low-poverty places. The only exceptions are the places that experienced increases in both poverty rates and job access, where the estimation of job accessibility's effects tends to be upwardly biased. The association between job accessibility and commute distance is significant in places with low to medium poverty rates, meaning that for poor workers who live in low-poverty neighborhoods, proximity to jobs can reduce their commute distance. For those who live in high-poverty places, proximity to jobs does not significantly affect their commute distances. These findings challenge the optimistic expectations of housing dispersion programs, at least their effects on employment status.
----------------------
Within-Mother Estimates of the Effects of WIC on Birth Outcomes in New York City
Janet Currie & Ishita Rajani
NBER Working Paper, August 2014
Abstract:
There is a large literature suggesting that “WIC works” to improve birth outcomes. However, methodological limitations related to selection into the WIC program have left room for doubt about this conclusion. This paper uses birth records from New York City to address the limitations of the previous literature. We estimate models with mother fixed effects to control for fixed characteristics of mothers and we directly investigate the way that time-varying characteristics of mothers affect selection into the WIC program. We find that WIC is associated with reductions in low birth weight, even among full term infants, and with reductions in the probability that a child is “small for dates.” These improvements are associated with a reduction in the probability that the mother gained too little weight during pregnancy. Improvements tend to be largest for first born children. We also find that women on WIC are more likely to be diagnosed with chronic conditions, and receive more intensive medical services, a finding that may reflect improved access to medical care.
----------------------
The short-term impacts of Earned Income Tax Credit disbursement on health
David Rehkopf, Kate Strully & William Dow
International Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming
Background: There are conflicting findings regarding long- and short-term effects of income on health. Whereas higher average income is associated with better health, there is evidence that health behaviours worsen in the short-term following income receipt. Prior studies revealing such negative short-term effects of income receipt focus on specific subpopulations and examine a limited set of health outcomes.
Methods: The United States Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is an income supplement tied to work, and is the largest poverty reduction programme in the USA. We utilize the fact that EITC recipients typically receive large cash transfers in the months of February, March and April, in order to examine associated changes in health outcomes that can fluctuate on a monthly basis. We examine associations with 30 outcomes in the categories of diet, food security, health behaviours, cardiovascular biomarkers, metabolic biomarkers and infection and immunity among 6925 individuals from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Survey. Our research design approximates a natural experiment, since whether individuals were sampled during treatment or non-treatment months is independent of social, demographic and health characteristics that do not vary with time.
Results: There are both beneficial and detrimental short-term impacts of income receipt. Although there are detrimental impacts on metabolic factors among women, most other impacts are beneficial, including those for food security, smoking and trying to lose weight.
Conclusions: The short-term impacts of EITC income receipt are not universally health promoting, but on balance there are more health benefits than detriments.
----------------------
Endogenous neighborhood effects on welfare participation
Qingyan Shang
Empirical Economics, September 2014, Pages 639-667
Abstract:
This article examines the impact of neighborhood welfare participation on individual welfare participation, that is, the endogenous neighborhood effects. Endogenous neighborhood effects generate social multipliers. Few existing empirical studies on neighborhood effects distinguish between endogenous neighborhood effects and exogenous neighborhood effects, that is, the effects of neighborhood characteristics. This article constitutes an early attempt to identify and estimate endogenous and exogenous neighborhood effects separately. I construct an instrumental variable for neighborhood welfare participation rate based on the variation in welfare benefits and neighborhood demographic composition to address the reflection problem and the omitted neighborhood variables problem. A two-step method is proposed to separately estimate endogenous and exogenous neighborhood effects. The results show that neighborhood welfare participation plays an important role in a woman’s welfare participation both before and after the welfare reform in 1996.
----------------------
Positive Externalities of Social Insurance: Unemployment Insurance and Consumer Credit
Joanne Hsu, David Matsa & Brian Melzer
NBER Working Paper, July 2014
Abstract:
This paper studies the impact of unemployment insurance (UI) on consumer credit markets. Exploiting heterogeneity in UI generosity across U.S. states and over time, we find that UI helps the unemployed avoid defaulting on their mortgage debt. We estimate that UI expansions during the Great Recession prevented about 1.4 million foreclosures. Lenders respond to this decline in default risk by expanding credit access and reducing interest rates for low-income households at risk of being laid off. Our findings call attention to two benefits of unemployment insurance not previously highlighted: reducing deadweight losses from loan default and expanding access to credit.
----------------------
Wesley Dean et al.
Rural Sociology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Whether government-based forms of food assistance such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), communal efforts including food pantries, aid from friends and family, or alternative means such as gardening are the appropriate means to reduce the prevalence of household food insecurity is a continuous source of policy contention. To inform this debate, we examine the relative importance of these forms of food assistance and acquisition to a sample of U.S. older adults from the 2010 Brazos Valley Health Assessment of central Texas households that have been stratified by income eligibility for SNAP, low-income SNAP ineligibility, and above low income status. To identify how membership in these socioeconomic groups constrains household capacity to acquire sufficient food to maintain an adequate and healthy diet, we explore the varied associations of assets received from government; communal and intimate social networks; and alternative food sources such as gardening, hunting, and fishing with household food security across socioeconomic status, while examining the importance of place of residence on the use of capital assets. SNAP participation was the only specific capital asset associated with all levels of food insecurity for both SNAP-eligible and ineligible low-income groups, thus emphasizing the continued importance of food assistance among poverty-level older adults.
----------------------
The Impact of Public Housing on Social Networks: A Natural Experiment
Craig Pollack et al.
American Journal of Public Health, September 2014, Pages 1642-1649
Objectives: We assessed whether 2 types of public housing — scattered among market-rate housing developments or clustered in small public housing projects — were associated with the perceived health and health behaviors of residents’ social networks.
Methods: Leveraging a natural experiment in Montgomery County, Maryland, in which residents were randomly assigned to different types of public housing, we surveyed 453 heads of household in 2011. We asked residents about their own health as well as the perceived health of their network members, including their neighbors.
Results: Residents in scattered-site public housing perceived that their neighbors were more likely to exercise than residents of clustered public housing (24.7% of network members vs 14.0%; P < .001). There were no significant differences in the proportion of network members who were perceived to have major health problems, depressed mood, poor diet, or obesity. Having more network members who smoked was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of smoking.
Conclusions: Different types of public housing have a modest impact on the health composition of one’s social network, suggesting the importance of housing policy for health.
----------------------
Gary Adamkiewicz et al.
American Journal of Public Health, September 2014, Pages 1650-1656
Objectives: We explored prevalence and clustering of key environmental conditions in low-income housing and associations with self-reported health.
Methods: The Health in Common Study, conducted between 2005 and 2009, recruited participants (n = 828) from 20 low-income housing developments in the Boston area. We interviewed 1 participant per household and conducted a brief inspection of the unit (apartment). We created binary indexes and a summed index for household exposures: mold, combustion by-products, secondhand smoke, chemicals, pests, and inadequate ventilation. We used multivariable logistic regression to examine the associations between each index and household characteristics and between each index and self-reported health.
Results: Environmental problems were common; more than half of homes had 3 or more exposure-related problems (median summed index = 3). After adjustment for household-level demographics, we found clustering of problems in site (P < .01) for pests, combustion byproducts, mold, and ventilation. Higher summed index values were associated with higher adjusted odds of reporting fair–poor health (odds ratio = 2.7 for highest category; P < .008 for trend).
Conclusions: We found evidence that indoor environmental conditions in multifamily housing cluster by site and that cumulative exposures may be associated with poor health.
----------------------
Estimating the Impact of Low-Income Universal Service Programs
Daniel Ackerberg et al.
International Journal of Industrial Organization, November 2014, Pages 84–98
Abstract:
This policy study uses U.S. Census microdata to evaluate how subsidies for universal telephone service vary in their impact across low-income racial groups, gender, age, and home ownership. Our demand specification includes both the subsidized monthly price (Lifeline program) and the subsidized initial connection price (Linkup program) for local telephone service. Our quasi-maximum likelihood estimation controls for location differences and instruments for price endogeneity. The microdata allow us to estimate the effects of demographics on both elasticities of telephone penetration and the level of telephone penetration. Based on our preferred estimates, the subsidy programs increased aggregate penetration by 6.1% for households below the poverty line. Our results suggest auto-enroll policies are important and that Linkup is more cost-effective than Lifeline, which calls into question a recent FCC (2012) decision to reduce Linkup subsidies in favor of Lifeline. Our study can inform the evaluation of similar universal service policies for Internet access.