Apr 1, 2019 - Mar 31, 2021
| Leader |
|
|---|
We will study how two distinct income support programs for non-elderly adults, namely in-work and out-of-work benefit programs, jointly affect work incentives. The former targets low-income working adults while the latter is to support people in-need who do not work. Our framework includes the two largest income support programs in the US: Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which is an in-work benefit and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) which is an out-of-work benefits. In our study, we also incorporate food stamp, which is an important public transfer for the poor in the US. Though these programs can have a significant effect on labor supply, existing studies analyze them separately. Our research will be the first one to study the three programs in a unified framework. We will use a structural life-cycle model to examine their joint effects on the labor supply and the optimal design of the food stamp program.