Table 2.

Effect of Earned Income Tax Credit Payment Size on Child Development, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1986–2000

Variable	BPIa						HOMEa
	2-Year Difference			4-Year Difference			2-Year Difference			4-Year Difference
	No.	β	95% CI	No.	β	95% CI	No.	β	95% CI	No.	β	95% CI
Base modelsb
EITC amount per $1,000c		−0.57	−1.14, −0.0034		−0.29	−1.22, 0.62		0.083	−0.57, 0.74		0.59	−0.26, 1.44
Married		0.31	−1.06, 1.68		−0.28	−2.32, 1.75		−3.42	−4.60, −2.23		−5.53	−7.09, −3.97
No. of hours worked		0.0001	−0.0007, 0.0005		−0.0003	−0.0011, 0.0004		0.0004	−0.0001, 0.0010		0.0007	0.00, 0.0013
No. of dependent children		−0.49	−1.36, 0.38		−0.83	−2.11, 0.45		1.35	0.66, 2.05		2.17	1.07, 3.27
Pretax household income per $1,000c,d		0.0007	−0.025, 0.026		0.0018	−0.038, 0.042		−0.0057	−0.025, 0.014		−0.0092	−0.038, 0.020
Constant		2.50	0.12, 4.89		3.17	−0.23, 6.57		−1.75	−3.54, 0.047		−3.01	−5.71, −0.32
No. of child-years	14,043			10,062			20,609			15,808
No. of children	6,261			5,383			7,645			6,498
Models including state-level covariatesb
EITC amount per $1,000c		−0.34	−0.80, 0.13		−0.25	−0.97, 0.46		−0.033	−0.60, 0.53		0.052	−0.65, 0.75
Married		0.41	−0.97, 1.79		−0.31	−2.36, 1.72		−3.48	−4.69, −2.26		−5.59	−7.12, −4.05
No. of hours worked		0.00	−0.0006, 0.0006		−0.0003	−0.0011, 0.0005		0.0004	−0.0001, 0.0010		0.0007	0.00, 0.0014
No. of dependent children		−0.48	−1.40, 0.43		−0.80	−2.09, 0.49		1.35	0.62, 2.07		2.10	1.00, 3.19
Pretax household income per $1,000c,d		0.0018	−0.023, 0.027		0.0027	−0.036, 0.041		−0.0021	−0.022, 0.018		−0.0077	−0.037, 0.022
State unemployment		0.075	−0.40, 0.55		0.34	−0.38, 1.06		−0.021	−0.041, 0.36		0.24	−0.30, 0.79
State personal income per $1,000c		−0.077	−0.44, 0.29		−0.35	−0.91, 0.20		−0.082	−0.40, 0.24		0.25	−0.17, 0.67
Constant		3.73	−6.65, 14.10		8.99	−6.50, 24.49		0.35	−8.65, 9.34		−10.66	−22.79, 1.46
No. of child-years	14,006			10,059			20,582			15,471
No. of children	6,222			5,346			7,588			6,479

Abbreviations: BPI, Behavioral Problems Index; CI, confidence interval; EITC, Earned Income Tax Credit; HOME, Home Observation Measurement of the Environment.

^a Higher values on the HOME inventory and lower BPI values denote a better outcome.

^b Analyses involve multivariate linear regression with fixed effects (i.e., dummy variables) for each child and year; time-invariant characteristics were therefore not included in these models. Standard errors were clustered at the household level. We utilized multiple imputation using chained equations to impute missing data.

^c Values for income, EITC payment size, and state income were inflation-adjusted to year 2000 dollars.

^d Coefficients for household income squared and cubed were zero and therefore omitted from this Table for display purposes only.