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  4. February 2017
  5. The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit: Comment

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit: Comment

  • Samuel Lundstrom
American Economic Review
vol. 107, no. 2, February 2017
(pp. 623–28)
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Abstract

In a recent article in the American Economic Review, Dahl and Lochner (2012) use changes in the Earned Income Tax Credit to estimate the causal effect of family income on child achievement. Their instrumental variable (IV) estimates imply that a $1,000 increase in income raises combined math and reading test scores by about 6 percent of a standard deviation. I document a variable coding error. Correcting this error reduces the IV estimates by 32 percent; correcting this error does not change the qualitative conclusions of the study.

Citation

Lundstrom, Samuel. 2017. "The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit: Comment." American Economic Review, 107 (2): 623–28. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20150988

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • H24 Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies; includes inheritance and gift taxes
  • H31 Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Household
  • I21 Analysis of Education
  • I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
  • J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth