Dissertation

Impact of Paid Family Leave on Maternal Employment and Family Economic Security 

My dissertation comprises three papers investigating the effects of state Paid Family Leave (PFL) on mothers’ employment and the economic security of families with newborn children. I particularly focus on PFL’s effects on Hispanic and Black mothers, single and/or low-educated mothers, who are disproportionately vulnerable to economic and employment disruptions and have limited access to employer-provided leave benefits. Paper 1 examines the long-term effects of PFL in California on mothers' employment and earnings up to 11 years after childbirth, using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the difference-in-differences approach. I highlight how the policy effects evolve over time by comparing the policy effects on early adopters and late adopters. Paper 2 examines the effects of PFL in several states (CA, NJ, RI, NY) on mothers' short-term employment trajectories around childbirth, using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). This paper captures the dynamic changes in employment status around childbirth when work-family conflicts are intense, by identifying the distinctive patterns of employment trajectories using monthly changes in mothers’ employment status. Paper 3 investigates the effects of several state PFLs on the economic circumstances of families of newborn children, in each month relative to the child's birth. I use the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to measure families' monthly poverty status, to overcome the limitation of the official poverty measure that does not account for resources from the tax system and in-kind benefits. My dissertation contributes to the literature by highlighting the effects of PFL on marginalized populations and studying several state PFL programs, potentially contributing to the ongoing policy discussion of the federal version of PFL policy. 

Publications and Working Papers

Effects of the Expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit for Childless Young Adults on Material Wellbeing (with Katherine Michelmore, Natasha Pilkauskas, and Christopher Wimer; NBER working paper) 

In 2021, the U.S. Congress temporarily expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers without a qualifying child (childless EITC), to help counteract the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lower-wage working adults. This expansion roughly tripled the maximum benefits for qualifying filers and lowered the minimum age to claim the credit from 25 to 19, providing new benefits to low-income young adults. Using data from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey and a difference-in-differences design, this study is among the first to examine the impact of the expanded childless EITC on young adults’ material hardship (food, housing, and expenses). We find that the temporary expansion led to a significant decrease in housing hardship among low-income, childless, young adults, and suggestive evidence that it also reduced food insufficiency and difficulty with expenses. Overall our findings show that the temporary expansion of the childless EITC helped reduce material hardship among young adults.

Impact of the Expanded Child Tax Credit and Its Expiration on Adult Psychological Well-being (with Eunho Cha and Stacie Tao; Social Science & Medicine) 

The expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) under the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act provided temporary relief to families with children through monthly payments from July through December 2021, offering a unique opportunity to examine the impact of a near-universal cash transfer on adult psychological well-being in the United States. We use the Household Pulse Survey to analyze the CTC expansion to examine the expiration of the expanded CTC to investigate the effects of the expanded CTC and its expiration on psychological distress of adults in households with children and its differential effects by gender, education, marital status, and race and ethnicity (N = 167,772). We employ a difference-in-difference methodology by leveraging the policy-induced variation in the additional credits that households are eligible for. Our results indicate that the expanded CTC led to a significant reduction in the percentage of having at least mild symptoms of psychological distress in the overall sample, especially among female, single, married, and Hispanic adults. We find that more adults experienced moderate to severe psychological distress after the monthly CTC payments ended. 

Effects of the Expanded Child Tax Credit on Household Spending: Estimates Based on U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey Data (with Jake Schild, Sophie Collyer, Thesia Garner, Neeraj Kaushal, Jane Waldfogel, and Christopher Wimer; NBER working paper) 

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) was substantially expanded through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Early studies documented that the expansion reduced poverty and food insufficiency, but there is little research on its impact on household spending, particularly child-specific spending. We use data from the Consumer Expenditure Interview Survey and a parameterized difference-in-difference design to examine whether the expanded CTC increased spending overall, in major categories, and on specific items related to children's education and development. Our findings indivate that families used the CTC payments to enhance the well-being of their children and their entire household. For each $100 of CTC payment, families spent $44, mailny on housing ($28) and food ($12). Of this $44, $16 was directed toward child-specific goods and services, like childcare and children's clothes. Low-income households spent $22 of each $100 and the increase in child-specific spending was larger for Black-and Hispanic-headed households than for White-headed households. 

Work in Progress

Effects of SNAP Emergency Allotments on SNAP Participation and Food Security (with Robert P. Hartley and Neeraj Kaushal)

In March 2020, in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government introduced several changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), including Emergency Allotment (EA) waivers that granted all recipients eligibility for the maximum benefit and increased average SNAP benefits by 30 percent.  The US Congress ended EA nationwide in March 2023, but 18 states discontinued the waivers starting April 2021, resulting in significant variation in SNAP benefits across states. We exploit this state-year variation in SNAP benefits from changes in EA policy to investigate their impacts on SNAP receipts and measures of food insecurity. We use datasets from the Current Population Survey—Annual Social and Economic Supplement and Food Security Supplement. Our preliminary findings indicate that a full year of EA policy is associated with a 14% increase in SNAP receipt, a 51% increase in the amount of SNAP received, and an 18% increase in the duration of SNAP benefits among households with incomes less than 185% of the federal poverty line. Additionally, we find that a year of EA policy is linked with an 11% decrease in food insecurity and a 16% decrease in the spending needed to meet weekly basic household needs.

Does State-Level Investments in Children Reduce Material Hardship? (with Margot Jackson, Taryn Morrisey, and Christopher Wimer), Presented at 2024 Population Association of America 

State-level income supports, early childhood and K-12 education programming, and public health insurance promote children’s health, educational, and economic outcomes in the short- and long-term. Moreover, state-level public spending on programs targeted to children narrows socioeconomic and other disparities in child development. Existing research primarily emphasizes a single safety net program, despite the fact that the majority of low-income families with children participate in multiple public programs and the important interactions that exist between programs. We examine the effects of public investments in children on material hardship, using data on spending in states on major programs affecting children and families, linked to household-level data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) from 2013 to 2021. Preliminary findings suggest that higher public spending on child-related programming is associated with reductions in material hardships, with higher reductions among households below the official and supplemental poverty lines. 

Effects of the first federal paid leave mandate under the FFCRA on women’s employment during the Covid-19 pandemic (with Jiyoung Kang, Kyehyung Cheon, and Eunjung Lim) 

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing labor market inequalities, particularly affecting women due to their higher likelihood of working in face-to-face roles and lower access to remote work or paid leave. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was enacted to address these challenges, providing federal paid sick and family leave for the first time in the United States. This study investigates the impact of the FFCRA's paid leave mandate on women's employment, using a Difference-in-Differences model combined with the Synthetic Control Method to compare states with and without pre-existing paid leave policies. Analysis of Current Population Survey data from 2019-2020 reveals that the FFCRA increased labor force participation by 1.6 percentage points among women aged 25-50, with pronounced benefits for mothers, particularly those with young children aged 0-5. The findings underscore the FFCRA's role in mitigating labor market exits due to childcare challenges, highlighting its significant policy implications for supporting women's employment during crises.