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Does the earned income tax credit increase children's weight? The impact of policy‐driven income on childhood obesity
Author(s) -
Jo Young
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.3658
Subject(s) - earned income tax credit , national longitudinal surveys , economics , demographic economics , childhood obesity , obesity , family income , income tax , longitudinal data , tax credit , labour economics , medicine , public economics , demography , economic growth , endocrinology , overweight , sociology
Abstract I exploit substantial increases in the earned income tax credit to study how a policy‐driven change in family income affects childhood obesity. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, my difference‐in‐differences estimates indicate that the probability of being obese increased by 3 percentage points among children whose families experienced a greater income shock. A further investigation suggests that a reduction in maternal time with children played a greater role in children's weight gain than income. The paper's finding shows that a program that is not designed for health purposes, such as earned income tax credit, can have unintended effects on health outcomes.