Income and Child Maltreatment: Evidence from a Discontinuity in Tax Benefits
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: I provide new evidence of the effects of income on child maltreatment. I exploit a discontinuity in child-related tax benefits, which results in otherwisesimilar families receiving considerably different refunds during the first year of a child's life. I use twenty years of linked administrative data from California to determine the effects of this additional income on child protection system (CPS) involvement. A one-time $1,000 transfer to low-income households decreases the number of referrals to CPS (3%) and number of days spent in foster care (7%) in the first 3 years of life. Effects persist through at least age 8.
DOI: 10.1162/rest.a.1690
Author: Katherine Rittenhouse
Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
Language: English
Topic: Child Welfare and Adoption
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4417516368