Policy Feedback and the 2021 Advanced Child Tax Credit

ABSTRACT Policy feedback theories suggest that experiencing government benefits can reshape political attitudes, but evidence of how quickly these effects develop and whether they persist after benefits are withdrawn remains limited. This paper examines the 2021 Advanced Child Tax Credit (ACTC), tracking public support through six surveys spanning the policy's complete lifecycle—from pre‐implementation through two years post‐expiration. Using a quasi‐experimental design comparing parents eligible for benefits to pre‐benefit baselines and non‐parents, we find that experiencing the ACTC generated substantial and lasting increases in support among Republican parents (28 percentage points), while non‐parent views remained mostly unchanged. While partisan differences persisted overall, the results nonetheless suggest that partisanship does not necessarily dominate self‐interest. By examining attitudes well after policy repeal, this study provides unique insights into how brief exposure to universal benefits can create durable constituency support, even in highly polarized environments where policy feedback fails to prevent policy retrenchment.