10.17889/E112022
LaLumia, Sara
Replication data for: The EITC, Tax Refunds, and Unemployment Spells
ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
2013
10.1257/pol.5.2.188
10.1257/pol.5.2.188
V0
The earned income tax credit generates large average tax refunds for
low-income parents, and these refunds are distributed in a narrow
time frame. I rely on this plausibly exogenous source of variation
in liquidity to investigate the effect of cash on hand on unemployment
duration. Among EITC-eligible women, unemployment spells
beginning just after tax refund receipt last longer than unemployment
spells beginning at other times of year. There is no evidence that
tax refund receipt is associated with longer unemployment duration
for men, or that the longer durations for women are associated with
higher-quality subsequent job matches. (JEL H24, J64)