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Earned Income Tax Credit

The EITC is one of the most successful antipoverty programs in the history of US social policy. It provides a work credit that returns money back to low-income earners at tax time, effectively boosting the earnings of low-income wage-earners.
A universal earned income tax credit (refundable up to the first $10,000 on income) would cost roughly $1.3 trillion per year. If redistribution does not discourage work, then NIT-style programs better optimize social welfare functions relative to to EITC-style ones. Primary income-support welfare programs that could be consolidated into a single basic income include: earned income tax credit (EITC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), temporary assistance for needy families (TANF), and supplemental security income (SSI). Trapezoidal income support structures (like the Earned Income Tax Credit) may fail as an economy-wide stabilizer during periods of economic recession. In the USA, the 1970's reforms to the welfare system that introduced targeted cash transfer programs conditional on work were associated with higher infant mortality rates. A $500 per month UBI would more than compensate for the loss of SNAP and/or EITC benefits.
EITC for All: A UBI Compromise Proposal Reweaving the Safety Net: The Best Fit For Guaranteed Income The Architecture of a Basic Income Do cash transfer programmes yield better health in the first year of life? A systematic review linking low-income/middle-income and high-income contexts Optimal Income Transfer Programs: Intensive Versus Extensive Labor Supply Responses
Benjamin M. Leff Stephen Nuñez Michael Lewis Sidhya Balakrishnan Daniel J. Hemel Miranda Perry Fleischer Steven P. Miller Akshay Rajaram
Basic Income Social Wealth Fund
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