2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

333650
Improving population health by reducing poverty: New York's Earned Income Tax Credit


Sunday, November 1, 2015

Jeannette Wicks-Lim, PhD, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA
Peter S. Arno, PhD, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA
The relationship between low socioeconomic status and higher levels of morbidity and mortality has been well established in the literature. Researchers, however, rarely test the link between health improvements and social programs or economic policies designed to alleviate poverty. We evaluate the health effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a broad-based income support program that operates at the federal, state, and local level. Specifically, we analyze the health impact of expanding New York State and New York City’s EITC benefits on low-income neighborhoods between 1997 and 2010. Utilizing a difference-in-difference analytic strategy, we estimate that the 15-percentage-point increase in the state and local EITC rates reduced the low birth weight rate in New York City’s poor neighborhoods by 0.45 percentage points. This level of impact is substantial—from 1997 to 2010 low birth weight rates in these neighborhoods only fluctuated between 9.0 percent and 9.8 percent. Our estimates also suggest that EITC’s impact on low-income neighborhoods is stronger than that experienced by the average EITC-recipient household. Aside from this study, we are aware of no other neighborhood-level analysis of EITC’s impact on health. This evidence of health benefits associated with the EITC program should encourage policymakers to integrate the use of social and economic policies, such as the EITC, in their public health interventions.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Analyze the neighborhood health effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a broad-based income support program that operates at the federal, state, and local level. Demonstrate the EITC’s positive health effect on low birth weight at the neighborhood level. Discuss why EITC’s impact on low-income neighborhoods appears to be stronger than that experienced by the average EITC-recipient household. Explain why policymakers should be encouraged to integrate social and economic policies, such as the EITC, in their public health interventions.

Keyword(s): Maternal and Child Health, Economic Analysis

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the author or co-author of multiple studies examining economic policies aimed to alleviate poverty in the United States, including the Earned Income Tax credit. Several of these studies have been grant funded, and I have co-authored a book on the topic of minimum and living wage policies in the United States. Among my research interests is the intersection of economic and health policies.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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