One in four U.S. children lives in an immigrant family, and these youth face large and persistent inequalities in poverty, food insecurity, school attendance, and health compared with children in non-immigrant families. State and federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) policies are among the nation’s largest anti-poverty programs, yet many have historically excluded immigrant families. Over the past decade, 13 states have adopted more inclusive EITC and CTC provisions for immigrants. Prior research shows that tax credits can improve family income, reduce poverty, and support youth development, but existing studies largely overlook immigrant families. This study examines recent state policy changes to assess whether making tax credits more inclusive for immigrants narrows disparities in youth economic, educational, and health outcomes and which immigrant subgroups benefit most. Hamad and colleagues will use quasi-experimental methods, including difference-in-differences and event study models, to evaluate the effects of varying immigrant eligibility for state EITC and CTC policies on inequalities in child economic outcomes, educational, and health outcomes. To strengthen causal inference, they will incorporate multiple identification strategies such as triple-differences analyses and conduct extensive robustness checks. Findings will offer evidence on the efficacy of tax policy to improve outcomes for immigrant youth and their families, which could inform state-level policy changes in the near future and federal policy in the longer term.
Do state income support policies that are inclusive of immigrant families improve parental employment and income outcomes and child health and education outcomes?
