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Pages 159-173

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From page 159...
... . Household Wealth and Intergenerational Outcomes Correlational Studies Parental wealth or its components are highly predictive of child outcomes, based on a number of correlational studies.
From page 160...
... Fox (2016) found heterogeneous associations between parental wealth and income mobility among Black and White households, with increasing upward income mobility for low-income White families but not low-income Black families.
From page 161...
... All told, the literature offers no strong evidence as to whether increases in the wealth of low-income families might be expected to reduce intergenerational poverty. Conclusion 6-6: Controlling for income, family wealth is strongly cor related with children's adult outcomes.
From page 162...
... This leads us to consider potential expansions to tax credits that would produce such increases. The policy research literature does not tell us from which income levels increases are most effective at reducing intergenerational poverty, nor does it identify the most powerful combinations of increased income and employment for enhancing intergenerational mobility.
From page 163...
... That report estimated the an nual cost of this EITC expansion to be $20.4 billion and predicted that it would increase employment among low-income adults by 548,000 and reduce short-run poverty among children by 15%. • EITC Option 2: Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit by increas ing payments along the phase-in and flat portions of the EITC schedule.
From page 164...
... 164 FIGURE 6-7  EITC expansion options. SOURCE: Based on committee-created simulations under different policy options for structuring an EITC expansion.
From page 165...
... Other approaches to reduce inequities associated with growing employer market power and weakening worker institutions, all of which rely on indirect evidence, include these: • Increase the federal minimum wage to $11 per hour or to $15 per hour, in 2023 inflation-adjusted dollars. • Encourage the expansion of union representation in the labor force.
From page 166...
... . To raise wealth among low-income households, especially those of color, the committee views baby bonds as promising: • Create baby bonds for children born in the United States, with the value of the bonds determined by the family's income and net worth at the time of the child's birth and targeting families with incomes below the SPM poverty thresholds and total net worth in the bottom quintile of the U.S.
From page 167...
... For several reasons, this chapter focuses on family structure as a possible driver of intergenerational poverty. First, significant changes have taken place in the structure of families with lower levels of schooling and in Black families.
From page 168...
... Family structures differ markedly by race/ethnicity and education levels. The dark bars in Figure 7-2 show that in 2019, the largest proportions of children living with both married parents could be found among Asian children (88%)
From page 169...
... Rates of married-parent family structures are also markedly different across maternal education levels. Figure 7-2 shows differences between mothers with college degrees and mothers who had not completed high school; more complete data can be found in Kearney (2022)
From page 170...
... NOTES: SPM poverty rates apply to the calendar year 2019 as reported in the March 2020 Current Population Survey. Estimates produced with the Census Bureau's public-use weights, which adjust for survey nonresponse related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
From page 171...
... found that adults who, as children, experienced the easing of legal requirements for divorce were less well educated, had lower family incomes, separated from a partner more often, and were at higher risk of suicide than those who had grown up in areas that had maintained stricter divorce laws. An obvious possible reason why married-parent family structure is associated with better child outcomes is that having two adults in the home means twice as many potential income earners relative to single-parent families.
From page 172...
... Estimating the causal effect of marriage on child outcomes, including intergenerational poverty, is notoriously difficult because the true causes may lie in unmeasured differences across family types, rather than in family structure itself. In their review of the evidence on the effects of a father's absence, McLanahan et al.
From page 173...
... Family structure appears to operate independently at the family and neighborhood levels; for example, children of single parents have higher rates of upward intergenerational mobility if they grow up in a neighborhood with fewer single-parent households. Importantly, this study also controls for household income.


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