Abstract We provide new evidence that cash transfers following the birth of a first child can have large and long-lasting effects on that child’s outcomes. We take advantage of the January 1 birthdate cutoff for U.S. child-related tax benefits, which results in families of otherwise similar children receiving substantially different refunds during the first year of life. For the average low-income single-child family in our sample this difference amounts to roughly $1,300, or 10 percent of income. Using the universe of administrative federal tax data in selected years, we show that this transfer in infancy increases young adult earnings by at least 1 to 2 percent, with larger effects for males. These effects show up at earlier ages in terms of improved math and reading test scores and a higher likelihood of high school graduation. The observed effects on shorter-run parental outcomes suggest that additional liquidity during the critical window following the birth of a first child leads to persistent increases in family income that likely contribute to the downstream effects on children’s outcomes. The longer-term effects on child earnings alone are large enough that the transfer pays for itself through subsequent increases in federal income tax revenue.

中文翻译：

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投资婴儿：现金转移对新家庭的持久影响

摘要：我们提供了新的证据，表明第一个孩子出生后的现金转移可以对该孩子的结果产生巨大而持久的影响。我们利用 1 月 1 日美国儿童相关税收优惠的出生日期截止日期，这导致其他相似孩子的家庭在出生后第一年收到的退款金额大不相同。对于我们样本中的平均低收入独生子女家庭，这种差异大约为 1,300 美元，或收入的 10%。使用选定年份的行政联邦税收数据，我们表明，这种在婴儿期的转移使年轻人的收入至少增加了 1% 到 2%，对男性的影响更大。这些影响在数学和阅读考试成绩提高以及高中毕业的可能性更高方面表现在较早的年龄。观察到的对短期父母结果的影响表明，在第一个孩子出生后的关键窗口期间，额外的流动性会导致家庭收入持续增加，这可能会导致对孩子结果的下游影响。仅对儿童收入的长期影响就足够大，以至于转移通过随后联邦所得税收入的增加来收回成本。