Income and Child Maltreatment: Evidence from a Discontinuity in Tax Benefits

Abstract I provide new evidence of the effects of income on child maltreatment. I exploit a discontinuity in child-related tax benefits, which results in otherwisesimilar families receiving considerably different refunds during the first year of a child's life. I use twenty years of linked administrative data from California to determine the effects of this additional income on child protection system (CPS) involvement. A one-time $1,000 transfer to low-income households decreases the number of referrals to CPS (3%) and number of days spent in foster care (7%) in the first 3 years of life. Effects persist through at least age 8.