Jamila Michener, Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy, Cornell University
Abstract: The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is an income support that helps to offset the cost of raising children. Generous CTC policy is associated with improved mental and physical well-being among low-income families, especially Black and Latinx families. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the federal government significantly expanded and improved the CTC, making it more generous and accessible. However, the federal government failed to make that expansion permanent. Subsequently, many states attempted to establish their own CTCs or expand existing CTCs. Strikingly, some states adopted the equity-enhancing features of the expanded federal CTC while others introduced restrictive dimensions to their CTC policy design (limiting access and making it more burdensome). This study charts and analyzes the landscape of state CTC policy. We offer a descriptive assessment of state CTC policy design, emphasizing whether and how states took equity enhancing policy approaches. Drawing on an original policy database that identifies all new CTC bills introduced at the state level between 2018 and 2024, we develop a scoring rubric that allows us to analyze the design features of state CTC policy through the lens of equity. Altogether, this research advances our understanding of the political economy of social policy in an unequal, federated polity.
Jamila Michener is an associate professor of Government and Public Policy at Cornell University. Her research focuses on poverty, racial inequality and public policy in the United States. Her recent book, Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism and Unequal Politics (Cambridge University Press) examines how Medicaid--the nation’s public health insurance program for people with low income--affects democratic citizenship. Unpacking how federalism transforms Medicaid beneficiaries’ interpretations of government and structures their participation in politics, Fragmented Democracy assesses American political life from the vantage point(s) of those who are living in or near poverty, (disproportionately) Black or Latino, and reliant on a federated government for vital resources. Michener’s research has been supported by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Ford Foundation. She received her MA and PhD from the University of Chicago and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University. Prior to working at Cornell, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholar at the University of Michigan.
LOCATION:Malkin Penthouse STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20250127T170000Z DTEND:20250127T181500Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR