Lisa Gennetian - Duke University

Hispanic families and U.S. anti-poverty programs: Policy, practice, and uptake

    Date:  09/10/2020 (Thu)

    Time:  3:30pm- 5:00pm

    Location:  Seminar will be held on-site: ZOOM: https://duke.zoom.us/j/93114333802

    Organizer:  Giovanna Merli


Meeting Schedule: (Not currently open for scheduling. Please contact the seminar organizer listed above.)

    All meetings will be held in the same location as the seminar unless otherwise noted.

    3:30pm - Seminar Presentation (3:30pm to 5:00pm)


    Additional Comments:  Hispanic children account for more than one third of children living in poverty in the U.S. Yet, eligible low-income Hispanic families appear to have lower rates of participation in most public programs designed to reduce poverty. In 2009, for example, Hispanics made up 24 percent of the EITC-eligible population, but only 15 percent of those receiving the federal or state EITC were Hispanics. In recent estimates from the 2018 American Community Survey, only 2 out of 3 native-born Hispanic child households living at the federal poverty level reported receiving SNAP. This presentation will share findings from two related endeavors to understand uptake among Hispanic families and how the design of public policies might be affecting uptake. First, drawing on data from the 2014 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, estimates of EITC uptake from 2013-15 by race and ethnicity are derived adjusting for detailed characteristics of families with state- and year-fixed effects, and with a variety of new variables collected from primary sources to capture EITC marketing and outreach, availability of tax sites, and generosity of related state programs. Second, descriptive analyses of new collated information on state-level policies regarding eligibility determination, documentation requirements, and practices affecting the user-application experience for TANF will be presented in the 13 states that are host to over 80 percent of low income Hispanic children. This is complemented by new primary data collected in 2020 from TANF state and local administrators, and front line workers, in several of these same states regarding their perspectives about serving Hispanic families.