Through the Looking Glass: Examining Social Policy Through the Lens of the Child Tax Credit

Abstract

The United States (US) has one of the highest child poverty rates of any wealthy democracy, yet it remains one of the few such countries without a universal child benefit. What it has instead is the Child Tax Credit (CTC)---a policy that, for most of its history, has delivered its least generous benefits to the children who need it most.

This dissertation uses the CTC as a lens through which to examine the factors that shape social policy. It is organized around three questions that the CTC 's history raises. First, how did a credit seemingly conceived as a universal child benefit become a nonrefundable middle-class tax break? Second, what narratives did legislators deploy in arguing for and against making it fully refundable in 2021? Third, does parents' behavioral response to an increase in income provide evidence of parental altruism in household consumption choices?

Each question is addressed in a separate chapter. Chapter 2 traces the CTC 's political origins through legislative analysis, original oral history interviews with key policymakers and advocates, and archival materials. Chapter 3 applies the Narrative Policy Framework in a qualitative content analysis of congressional floor speeches surrounding the 2021 expansion. Chapter 4 develops a theoretical model of how parental altruism may be observable when parents and children have conflicting preferences. The predictions generated by this model are tested empirically using longitudinal consumer panel data on parents' spending during the 2021 Advance Payment period.

Collectively, these chapters demonstrate that, when used as a lens through which to view social policy, the politics of tax expenditures illuminates new dimensions of the American welfare state, theories of the policy process, and behavioral and family economics.