DOCSLIB.ORG

Childhood Circumstances and Adult Outcomes: Act Ii

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Childhood Circumstances and Adult Outcomes: Act Ii NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES CHILDHOOD CIRCUMSTANCES AND ADULT OUTCOMES: ACT II Douglas Almond Janet Currie Valentina Duque Working Paper 23017 http://www.nber.org/papers/w23017 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 January 2017 We thank Steven Durlauf and five anonymous referees for very helpful comments. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Almond thanks NSF award SES-1357608. At least one co-author has disclosed a financial relationship of potential relevance for this research. Further information is available online at http://www.nber.org/papers/w23017.ack NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2017 by Douglas Almond, Janet Currie, and Valentina Duque. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Childhood Circumstances and Adult Outcomes: Act II Douglas Almond, Janet Currie, and Valentina Duque NBER Working Paper No. 23017 January 2017 JEL No. H4,I14 ABSTRACT That prenatal events can have life-long consequences is now well established. Nevertheless, research on the Fetal Origins Hypothesis is flourishing and has expanded to include the early childhood (postnatal) environment. Why does this literature have a “second act?” We summarize the major themes and contributions driving the empirical literature since our 2011 reviews, and try to interpret the literature in light of an overarching conceptual framework about how human capital is produced early in life. One major finding is that relatively mild shocks in early life can have substantial negative impacts, but that the effects are often heterogeneous reflecting differences in child endowments, budget constraints, and production technologies. Moreover, shocks, investments, and interventions can interact in complex ways that are only beginning to be understood. Many advances in our knowledge are due to increasing accessibility of comprehensive administrative data that allow events in early life to be linked to long-term outcomes. Yet, we still know relatively little about the interval between, and thus about whether it would be feasible to identify and intervene with affected individuals at some point between early life and adulthood. We do know enough, however, to be able to identify some interventions that hold promise for improving child outcomes in early life and throughout the life course. Douglas Almond Valentina Duque Department of Economics University of Michigan Columbia University Postdoctoral Fellow in the International Affairs Building, MC 3308 Population Studies Center and 420 West 118th Street Department of Economics New York, NY 10027 426 Thompson Street and NBER Room 2034 [email protected] Ann Arbor, MI 48104 [email protected] Janet Currie Department of Economics Center for Health and Wellbeing 185A Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 and NBER [email protected] The fetal origins literature has been particularly active over the last several years rendering reviews by Currie (2009) and Almond and Currie (2011a, b) somewhat dated. Figure 1 shows the number of papers about “fetal origins” in several leading journals by year.1 Why does this literature “have legs"? By now, the rudimentary point is familiar. Currie and Hyson (1999) using longitudinal data showed that long-term outcomes seemed to respond to circumstances in utero; Costa (2000) found that chronic health conditions among older men were predicted by early-life infant mortality rates in their natal areas, which can proxy for the disease environment. Papers exploiting natural experiments to show the long-term impact of fetal and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Figure 1 shows the number of annual publications from January 1993 to October 2015 in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Econometrica, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of the European Economic Association, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Public Economics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Development Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and Journal of Health Economics. 2 ! ! early life shocks such as Almond (2006), Van Den Berg et al. (2006), and Bleakley (2007), are a decade old. One reason for continued interest is that the large magnitude of the fetal origins effects that have been found, and the short time interval in utero suggest that in principle, Pareto improvements can be made by re-allocating resources from later to earlier in the life cycle. Given the common definition of economics as the study of the allocation of scarce resources (e.g., Blackhouse and Medema, 2009), this literature resonates with a core interest of economists: efficiency. Of course, the separation in time and across people (first the mother then the child) makes it far from obvious how this potentially high-return reallocation of resources can best be achieved. A second reason for enduring interest in the Fetal Origins Hypothesis (FOH) is that it has proven to describe a surprisingly general phenomenon. Although FOH was first formulated as a specific theory about the effects of prenatal nutritional deprivation on chronic health conditions in adulthood (Barker, 1998), economists have found that a wide range of early life experiences matter and that many other (non-health) outcomes are affected. Outcomes of surpassing interest to economists, including IQ and wages, have been linked to early life influences, as have some newer areas of focus such as personality traits. This evolving discovery speaks to another area of abiding interest for economics: the debate about nature versus nurture. It has become increasingly clear that we are shaped by many occurrences in early life which interact with our genetic endowments to either help or hinder us in reaching our potential and/or adapting to our environment (Manski, 2011). The FOH literature suggests that it may be possible to respond to entrenched disadvantage by altering the 3 ! ! environment in a way that promotes economic equality (Currie, 2011). Thus, the FOH remains important because it suggests that it may be possible to counter-balance forces leading to greater inequality (such as skill biased technical change) with investments in pregnant women, children, and their environments broadly defined.2 In addition to surveying studies that focus on shocks that occur while the child is in utero, this review considers shocks in early childhood. Angrist and Pischke (2010) herald a “credibility revolution” in which clear a priori definitions of treatment and control groups combined with time-series variation in environmental conditions help to generate sharp predictions. The FOH hypothesis lends itself to “severe tests” (Dinardo, 2007) given that the in utero period is very well defined, and children subjected to an external shock in utero can often be compared to similar children born a little earlier or later, who escaeped the shock. The beginning and ending dates of the period of “early childhood” are less well defined than the period in utero making it somewhat more difficult to find clean “natural experiments.” It is nevertheless possible to employ compelling identification strategies and we feel the majority of papers discussed in this review employ compelling research designs. In view of the large number of relevant studies, we organize the review around a series of “handbook” style tables that we present in the supplemental file (which can be found using the link in the abstract page). In lyric opera fashion, the tables briefly summarize each study’s highlights. We also report the datasets used, sample sizes, the empirical strategy employed, main results obtained, and any heterogeneity by subgroup in the tables. We have also tried to express ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2!In describing “Six examples of the Long-term Benefits of Anti-Poverty Programs”, the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers summarized recent research in this literature by economists, noting: Economists have traditionally argued that anti-poverty policy faces a “great tradeoff” — famously articulated by Arthur Okun — between equity and efficiency. Yet, recent work suggests that Okun’s famous tradeoff may be far smaller in practice nth tra aditionally believed and in ! many cases precisely the opposite could be the case. ! 4 the main effects both as a percent with respect to the outcome mean (when the outcome mean was provided in the paper) and in terms of a standard deviation (when the outcome’s standard deviation was provided). To some extent, reporting estimates in % and in SD facilitates the comparison of the effects across studies when these focus on a similar outcome (e.g., test scores). Consistent with the broader trend in economics, many of these papers pay particular attention to the use of large-scale administrative datasets. Beyond reducing measurement error and recording additional outcomes, the use of administrative data can help mitigate problems of selective attrition from surveys
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Benefits for Families with Children
    Benefits for families with children Family benefits and assistance for families with sick children BRIEFLY AND IN PLAIN LANGUAGE Contents Kela’s benefits for the unemployed 2 Who can get benefits for families with children? 3 Before your child is born 3 After your child is born 4 Support for adoptive parents 6 Kela card 6 Child benefit 7 Child care allowances 7 If your child becomes ill 9 Child maintenance allowance 10 Application and payment 11 Kela at your service 12 Benefits for families with children 2019 This brochure tells you about what You can also apply for benefits by kind of financial assistance Kela filling in an application form that gives to families with children you can get from any Kela office or from Kela’s website. The brochure describes the situation in 2019. It does not, however, www.kela.fi/forms include all the details on the different types of benefits that are The requirements that you must available. meet to qualify for benefits from Kela are laid down in law. More information about the benefit When Kela makes a decision amounts is available at about a benefit, the applicant’s circumstances are considered www.kela.fi/family individually. The applicants’ circumstances and You have to apply for benefits need for financial support vary provided by Kela. a great deal. You can apply for benefits online: For this reason, not everyone receives the same amount of www.kela.fi/asiointi benefit. (in Finnish), www.fpa.fi/etjanst (in Swedish) 1 Kela’s benefits for families with children Kela provides financial assistance to You can get information about families with children in many ways, important services for families with starting from pregnancy.
    [Show full text]
  • How the Introduction and Cancellation of a Child Benefit Affected Births and Abortions Libertad González Sofia Trommlerová
    How the Introduction and Cancellation of a Child Benefit Affected Births and Abortions Libertad González Sofia Trommlerová February 2020 Barcelona GSE Working Paper Series Working Paper nº 1153 Cash Transfers and Fertility: How the Introduction and Cancellation of a Child Benefit Affected Births and Abortions* February 2020 Libertad González Sofia Trommlerová (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona GSE) Abstract: We study the effects of a universal child benefit on fertility, identifying separately the effects driven by conceptions and abortions. We focus on a generous lump-sum maternity allowance that was introduced in Spain in 2007 and cancelled in 2010. Using administrative, population-level data, we create a panel data set of the 50 Spanish provinces, with monthly data on birth and abortion rates between 2000 and 2017. Our identification is based on the timing of the introduction and cancellation of the policy (both its announcement and implementation), from which we infer when the effects on abortions and births can be expected. We find that the introduction of the policy led to a 3% increase in birth rates, due to both a decrease in abortions and an increase in conceptions. The announcement of the cancellation of the policy led to a transitory increase in birth rates of 4% just before the cancellation was implemented, driven by a short-term drop in abortions. The cancellation then led to a 6% drop in birth rates. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the positive fertility effect of the benefit introduction was driven by high-skilled parents, while the negative impact of the cancellation was larger among low-skilled and out-of-labor-force parents, and in lower income, higher unemployment regions.
    [Show full text]
  • Intersex, Discrimination and the Healthcare Environment – a Critical Investigation of Current English Law
    Intersex, Discrimination and the Healthcare Environment – a Critical Investigation of Current English Law Karen Jane Brown Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of London Metropolitan University for the Award of PhD Year of final Submission: 2016 Table of Contents Table of Contents......................................................................................................................i Table of Figures........................................................................................................................v Table of Abbreviations.............................................................................................................v Tables of Cases........................................................................................................................vi Domestic cases...vi Cases from the European Court of Human Rights...vii International Jurisprudence...vii Tables of Legislation.............................................................................................................viii Table of Statutes- England…viii Table of Statutory Instruments- England…x Table of Legislation-Scotland…x Table of European and International Measures...x Conventions...x Directives...x Table of Legislation-Australia...xi Table of Legislation-Germany...x Table of Legislation-Malta...x Table of Legislation-New Zealand...xi Table of Legislation-Republic of Ireland...x Table of Legislation-South Africa...xi Objectives of Thesis................................................................................................................xii
    [Show full text]
  • Programs I I I: 1'1111 I
    rOPULAT10~~ !,::'J r,:'JT~'"TiJ:J FROJ£CTi . ~ , . - "T .~;::)..o l.1 ~: j~\: I i ~" :~ .. 't.?l '. " , . " / . : == . ,:J) /' f / ,~. ~ h· q ! . ~: ... - 1'. ., , -, ~. I l I " 1\ ". " ," , INCENTIVE APPROACHES IN POPllllATION PLANNING PROGRAMS I I I: 1'1111 I READINGS AND ANNOTATIONS I . == -- 1 INCENTIVE APPROACHES IN POPULATION PLANNING PROGRAMS: Readings and Annotations Edited by Oliver D. Finnigan, III Table of Contents i Editor's Foreword ii Introduction iii Annotation I. The Problem F,Fertility Levels and Fertility Trends in the Philippines, 1 Wilhelm Flieger 2. Small Family Norm for Filipinos 2 Y. Lando Jocano 3. Desired Family Size and Efficacy of Current Family Planning 3 Programs Ronald C. Ridker II. Suggested Solutions 1. Beyond Family Planning 4 Bernard Berel'on -2. Incentives in Family Planning Programs: Time.for a New Look 5 J. Timothy Sprehe 3. Integrated Incentives for F'ertility Control 6 Leni W. Kangas 4. What May be Offered.as Incentives 7 Edward Pohlman II. Incentive Programs To Date (April 1972) A. Incentives for contraceptive acceptance 1. Population.and Family Planning Programs: A Factbook 8 Dorothy Nortman 2. Incentive Payments, IPPF working paper No. 4 9 3. Incentives in the Diffusion of Family Planning Innovations 10 Everett M. Rogers 4. A Field Study of Family Planning Incentives and Field Staff 11 in Indonesia Everett M. Rogers ,5. Useof the Agent System in Seoul 12 E. Hyock Kwon 6. Motivational and Incentive Components of the Korean 13 Family Planning Program Taek II Kim, Walter B. Watson 7. Field Structures in Family Planning 14 Wajihuddin Ahmad 8. The-Maximum Acceptance Study, Taiwan Committee for 15 Family Planning 9.
    [Show full text]
  • Pregnancy and Birth
    Vertaling Pregnancy and birth Are you pregnant or have you just given birth? Congratulations! However, this is a period that also requires a fair amount of administration. But not to worry: this information sheet will help you to understand all the paperwork so that you can go back to enjoying your life. What should you do during your pregnancy? • Notify your employer of your pregnancy as soon as possible. • Ensure you apply for your start amount (formerly maternity allowance) on time. You also need to provide one of the five providers of your child benefit fund (e.g. KidsLife or Infino) with a doctor’s certificate specifying the expected birth date. You may choose the provider from which you request the child benefit fund. • After childbirth, do you need domestic help or help with taking care of the baby? Make sure you apply for maternity care with a recognised family care or additional home-care service in good time. CM can offer an allowance of up to 300 euros per family. • Cost for hospitalisation can mount very quickly. Are you sufficiently insured for child delivery costs? CM can help you establish an overview of the costs involved. • Notify CM as soon as you take parental leave or need work adjustment (with a medical statement from your gynaecologist). • Request basic child benefit (formerly child support) from the child benefit fund. Already receiving the starter amount for your child? Then you will receive the basic amount automatically. If you don’t already receive the starter amount, you can request it from the provider of the child benefit fund.
    [Show full text]
  • Briefing Universal Child Benefits: Policy Issues and Options
    Briefing Universal child benefits: policy issues and options ODI and UNICEF June 2020 Key messages y Child poverty remains high, with persistent overrepresentation of children in poverty compared with older age groups. Despite clear evidence of the effectiveness of well- designed social protection in tackling child poverty, coverage of children remains low. y Universal child benefits (UCBs) can play a critical role in reducing child poverty while promoting social cohesion and public support for social protection. In countries with established UCBs, they constitute a cornerstone of national social policy systems and have proved effective in scaling up social protection in times of crisis. y UCBs are a cash or tax transfer paid to households with children, unconditionally and on a regular basis. They are typically part of a wider package of policies. The design details of specific child benefits, and the broader tax-transfer systems within which they operate, incorporate varying degrees of universalism and selectivity that influence how benefits work in practice and their impact. y Key issues policymakers consider when introducing or adjusting a child benefit, including UCBs, are: • compliance with child rights • child poverty reduction effectiveness • the dignity of children and their carers • political economy considerations • financial cost and affordability. The policy priorities, options and trade-offs for individual countries vary depending on their demographic and poverty profile as well as their administrative and fiscal capacity. y Theory and evidence both highlight the advantages of approaches that are universalistic and in which some form of selectivity is used to direct additional benefits at particular disadvantaged or vulnerable groups – referred to as ‘selectivity within universalism’.
    [Show full text]
  • Cgiar Gender Program
    PN-ABX- 5'17 CGIAR GENDER PROGRAM WORKING PAPER, NO. 8 INVENTORY OF GENDER-RELATED RESEARCH AND TRAINING IN THE INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTLTRAL RESEARCH CENTERS 1990 - 1995 Prepared by Hilary Sims Feldstein with Alison Slack CGIAR Secretariat World Bank Washington, D.C. October 1995 LIST OF WORKING PAPERS Working Paper, No. 1 Status of Internationally-Recruited Women in the International Agricultural Research Centers of the CGIAR; Deborah Merrill- Sands and Pamrni Sachdeva; October 1992 Working Paper, No. 2 Spouse Employment in Organizations Around the World: A Toolkit for Developing Policies and Practices; Madelyn Blair, December 1992 Working Paper, No. 3 Spouse Employment at IRRI: A Case Study; Deborah Merrill- Sands; March 1993 Working Paper, No. 4 Strengthening the Recruitment of Women Scientists and Professionals at the International Agricultural Research Centers: A Guidelines Paper; Sarah Ladbury; October 1993 Working Paper, No. 5 Recruitment Resources in Europe: A List of Professional Organizations; Stella Mascarenhas-Keys and Sarah Ladbury; October 1993 Working Paper, No. 6 Filipino Women Scientists: A Potential Recruitment Pool for International Agricultural Research Centers; ISNAR and PCARRD; October 1993 Working Paper, No. 7 Recruitment Resources in the United States: A List of Professional Organizations; Bonnie Folger McClafferty and Deborah Merrill-Sands; January 1994 Working Paper, No. 8 Inventory of Gender-Related Research and Training in the International Agricultural Research Centers, 1990-1995; Hilary Sims Feldstein with
    [Show full text]
  • Universal Health Coverage with Equity: What We Know, Don't Know and Need to Know
    Universal health coverage with equity: what we know, don’t know and need to know Patricia Frenz 1, Jeanette Vega2 1. Assistant Professor of Public Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile. E-mail: [email protected] 2. Director of the Center of Epidemiology and Public Health Policy, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad del Desarrollo de Chile and former Vice Minister of Health. E-mail: [email protected] Background paper for the global symposium on health systems research 16-19 november 2010 • montreux, switzerland HSR/BCKGRT/9/2010 This is a background paper for the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research held 16-19 November, 2010, in Montreux, Switzerland. The goal of this paper is to initiate a dialogue on the critical issues in health systems research. The opinions expressed in these papers are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the symposium organizers. All papers are available at the symposium website at www.hsr-symposium.org The symposium is organized by: • Global Health Research Initiative (GHRI) • World Health Organization (WHO) • The International Development Research Centre (IDRC), • Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Canada Diseases (TDR) • Management Science for Health (MSH) • Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research • Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands • Special Programme of Research, Development and Re- • Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation ( search Training in Human Reproduction (HRP) Norad) • Global Forum for
    [Show full text]
  • Trends and Gaps in Funding and Scaling Maternal and Newborn Health Innovations
    Trends and Gaps in Funding and Scaling Maternal and Newborn Health Innovations Main Authors: Allison Ettenger1 and Krista Donaldson2 | Key Contributor: Sweta Govani3 2 December 2020 PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH This paper was made possible by data about MNH innovations and funding provided by Global Innovation Exchange, the largest global innovation database managed by Results for Development. ​ ​ 1 Consulting Researcher, Equalize Health 2 Chief Executive Officer, Equalize Health; Corresponding author: [email protected] 3 Lead for Global Innovation Exchange, Results for Development (R4D) Citation: Ettenger, A.T., Govani, S.B. (Cont.), and Donaldson, K.M., (2020, December 1) Trends and Gaps in Maternal and Newborn Health Innovations for Impact at Scale. Retrieved from: https://equalizehealth.org/blog/funding-mnh-innovation Introduction Economists have long suggested that innovation offers the potential for public good (Kremer et al 2019), and many actors in global development no longer view it as “nice to have.” Indeed key actors from across the development ecosystem have sought to fund and support innovation as ​ a way to drive greater effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability, and convene and collaborate regularly through initiatives like the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA) and ​ ​ the UN Innovation Network . We define innovation here using IDIA’s and USAID’s Development ​ ​ Innovation Ventures’ complementary definitions: “a new solution with the transformative ability to accelerate impact” (IDIA 2020). These “solutions can come in the form of a product, ​ ​ technology, service, or application of a creative business and delivery model” (USAID 2020). ​ ​ Typically data on funding to global health and development innovations has been fragmented and difficult to find.
    [Show full text]
  • Universal Child Benefit Case Studies: the Experience of Armenia
    Universal Child Benefit Case Studies: The Experience of Armenia July 2019 Summary Background and Context An ageing population and low birth rates in Armenia Armenia is a landlocked country with a population of 3 have prompted policy initiatives to incentivise families to million and GDP per capita of $3,872 in 2017. Children make have (more) children. In addition to childbirth grants and up approximately 23% of Armenia’s total population. During maternity benefits, families receive childcare allowance in the last decade, Armenia’s economy and society withstood the form of cash assistance to care for children up to two two economic shocks, leading to a big contraction in years of age in the form of a categorical universal scheme GDP in 2009 of 14.1%. Inequality also increased: the Gini intended for working individuals who take time off to care coefficient rose from 0.339 in 2008 to 0.359 in 2017 (based for children after birth. Additionally, a significant set of on national consumption expenditure). Poverty also remains closely aligned family allowances and poverty-targeted a major challenge for Armenia, as 25.7% of the population policies are also available in the country. The share of the lives under the national poverty line. A third of children in childcare allowance programme in total social protection Armenia are currently living in poverty, and recent data spending has remained unchanged in recent years, but the from 2018, suggest the child poverty rate is 30.8%, with number of beneficiaries has increased from about 4,500 an extreme child-poverty rate of 2.1%.
    [Show full text]
  • Income Inequality and Health: Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Herzer, Dierk; Nunnenkamp, Peter Article Income inequality and health: Evidence from developed and developing countries Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal Provided in Cooperation with: Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) Suggested Citation: Herzer, Dierk; Nunnenkamp, Peter (2015) : Income inequality and health: Evidence from developed and developing countries, Economics: The Open-Access, Open- Assessment E-Journal, ISSN 1864-6042, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel, Vol. 9, Iss. 2015-4, pp. 1-56, http://dx.doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2015-4 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/107212 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
    [Show full text]
  • Child Allowance
    Economic Security in Good Times and Bad: COVID-19 Demonstrates Why We Need a Child Allowance The United States needs a child allowance— A child allowance is a regular cash payment that goes now and always. to families based on the number of children in the household. As a universal benefit tied directly to children, In order for children to thrive, their families must have it is not conditioned upon parental employment, or any enough income to meet their basic needs. But even when other parental actions. It is often designed as a universal the economy is strong, millions of American children live or near-universal benefit to help defray the costs of in families that cannot afford basic necessities.1 Children raising the next generation—costs that are otherwise are being denied what they need to lead happy and born by individual families, but from which society as healthy lives because of our policy choices. a whole benefits.6 Canada’s child benefit now pays a maximum monthly benefit of CA$553.25 per child under Over the past two and a half decades, policymakers the age of six, and CA$466.83 per child aged six to 17 have tied a growing number of our social supports to (approximately $381.40 and $321.83 USD respectively).7 parent’s work in the wage labor force.2 While policies The international evidence is clear that families spend like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax this additional income on items to meet their children’s Credit provide meaningful cash assistance to millions basic needs.8 Research has shown that child allowances
    [Show full text]