Abstract
This study examined whether the addition of household resources via the receipt of the U.S. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) affects short-term patterns of parents’ time investments in children, including time spent engaged with children and in activities related to their education. Using difference-in-differences analyses that exploit seasonal variation in federal EITC outlays with nationally representative time-diary data from the 2003 to 2017 American Time Use Survey-Current Population Survey (ATUS-CPS; N = 61,355) merged with state-level data from the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research (UKCPR) National Welfare Database, I estimate the plausibly causal effects of predicted EITC receipt on various measures of parents’ time investments in their children. I examine parents’ time spent directly engaged with children in enriching activities like play and reading and in activities related to children’s education among a low-socioeconomic sample (parents with less than a college degree). I find few associations between monthly federal EITC outlays and immediate changes in parents’ time investments, although there was evidence that greater EITC outlays predicted small increases in mothers’ time spent reading with or to children, particularly among mothers with young children, but also small decreases in fathers’ time spent in activities with children, particularly school-age children. Findings suggest that increases in household resources, even relatively small and annual increases, may have short-term effects on parent–child interactions and time use.
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Notes
Until 2010, EITC recipients had the option to receive their credit across paychecks through the year. Utilization of this option never exceeded 2 percent of recipients. See https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/HoltPeriodicPaymentEITC121515.pdf.
For more information, see: http://www.ukcpr.org/data.
The binary measures for any sleeping or any eating/drinking were not examined as nearly 100% of respondents did so at any point on the day about which they were interviewed.
Main models were also run including month of interview fixed effects, showing substantively similar patterns of results.
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The author wishes to thank participants at the 2017 International Association of Time Use Research, the 2018 Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management, and the 2019 Population Association of America research meetings for their helpful comments.
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Morrissey, T.W. The Earned Income Tax Credit and Short-Term Changes in Parents’ Time Investments in Children. J Fam Econ Iss 44, 412–433 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-022-09830-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-022-09830-7