The Long-Term Effects of Income for At-Risk Infants: Evidence from Supplemental Security Income
Amelia Hawkins, Christopher Hollrah, Sarah Miller, Laura R. Wherry, Gloria Aldana, Mitchell Wong
American Economic Review · 2025 · Volume 115 · Issue 9
Abstract
The Supplemental Security Income program uses a birth weight cutoff at 1,200 grams to determine eligibility. Using birth certificates linked to administrative records, we find low-income families of infants born just below the cutoff receive higher monthly cash benefits (equal to 27 percent of family income) at ages 0–2 with smaller benefits continuing through age 10. Yet we detect no improvements in health care use and mortality in infancy, nor in health and human capital outcomes as observed through young adulthood for these infants. We also find no improvements for their older siblings.
Keywords
Health Behavior, Health Insurance, Public and Private, Health: Government Policy, Regulation, Public Health, Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs, Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs, Fertility, Family Planning, Child Care, Children, Youth, Economics of the Elderly, Economics of the Handicapped, Non-labor Market Discrimination, Wage Level and Structure, Wage Differentials
Enable JavaScript for citation tools and additional paper interactions.