The Long-Term Effects of Income for At-Risk Infants: Evidence from Supplemental Security Income

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hawkins, Amelia; Hollrah, Christopher; Miller, Sarah; Wherry, Laura r.; Aldana, Gloria; Wong, Mitchell
• 署名单位: Brandeis University; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; National Bureau of Economic Research; New York University; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; University of California Los Angeles Medical Center; David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20231293
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 3081-3129
• 关键词: birth-weight; gender-gap; CHILDREN; HEALTH; IMPACT; interventions; CONSEQUENCES; disabilities; mortality; payments

摘要

The Supplemental Security Income program uses a birth weight cutoff at 1,200 grams to determine eligibility. Using birth certificates linked to administrative records, we find low-income families of infants born just below the cutoff receive higher monthly cash benefits (equal to 27 percent of family income) at ages 0-2 with smaller benefits continuing through age 10. Yet we detect no improvements in health care use and mortality in infancy, nor in health and human capital outcomes as observed through young adulthood for these infants. We also find no improvements for their older siblings. (JEL I12, I13, I18, I38, J13, J14, J31)