The EITC, Tax Refunds, and Unemployment Spells

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: LaLumia, Sara
• 署名单位: Williams College
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.5.2.188
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 188-221
• 关键词: job search; insurance; consumption; savings; credit; PARTICIPATION; liquidity; BEHAVIOR; WEALTH

摘要

The earned income tax credit generates large average tax refunds for low-income parents, and these refunds are distributed in a narrow time frame. I rely on this plausibly exogenous source of variation in liquidity to investigate the effect of cash on hand on unemployment duration. Among EITC-eligible women, unemployment spells beginning just after tax refund receipt last longer than unemployment spells beginning at other times of year. There is no evidence that tax refund receipt is associated with longer unemployment duration for men, or that the longer durations for women are associated with higher-quality subsequent job matches.