ABSTRACT The COVID‐19 pandemic not only cost the United States more than a million lives, but it also led to seismic labor market shifts and significant wealth changes. Previous literature has found that various factors such as government shutdown policies, business layoffs, and portfolio heterogeneity have increased wealth inequality during the pandemic. This article examines the impact of the pandemic on wealth inequality for population groups broken down by religion and race. Using 2019 and 2021 data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that wealth differentials by religious denominations and race existed before and during the pandemic at the mean and along the wealth distribution, and the pandemic somewhat diminished wealth inequality in many of those groups. Our analysis helps create a more holistic understanding of wealth inequality before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic, thus leading to better‐informed research and government policies in the future.

Purpose in life in late adolescence and incident depression over 10 years.

Income inequality is a persistent issue in economics and public policy, as it influences opportunities for individuals and affects broader patterns of social mobility and economic fairness. Understanding the factors that drive differences in earnings is therefore essential for both researchers and policymakers. This study uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to build a multiple nonlinear regression model that explores how age, gender, and education affect income. To capture the possible nonlinear relationship between age and income, a quadratic term is added for age, and a log transformation is applied to income to reduce skewness. The regression results show that income generally follows an inverted U-shaped trend with age. While gender shows a borderline significant effect, education does not appear to be statistically significant in this model. After applying regression without education, the fit of the model did not improve noticeably. Although the overall explanatory power of the model is limited, it still reflects important ideas from human capital theory. Therefore, the study highlights several limitations, including the oversimplification of the model and the exclusion of relevant variables such as race and occupation. Taking these factors into account and drawing on the insights from previous research, the report concludes with policy implications and recommendations for future studies.

This study investigates the long-term health effects of early childhood exposure to the U.S. Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC). Using longitudinal data from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we examine the connection between early-life CDCTC exposure and health outcomes for children aged 6-18. The findings reveal varied effects depending on maternal education: children of mothers with more than a high school education experience adverse physical and mental health outcomes. In contrast, children of mothers who have a high school education or less show improvements in their mental health. These results indicate that, despite its intention to aid working families, the CDCTC may have complex effects on children's health, influenced by socio-economic factors. This study highlights the need for careful policy designs that consider the varying needs of families with different socio-economic statuses.

In July 2021, to alleviate material hardship, Congress temporarily expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC), one of the largest income transfer programs in the United States. Prior research has linked the expansion to improvements in material hardship, food insecurity, and parental mental health. This study is among the first to examine its association with child well-being. We analyzed data from 1,028 children in the 2020-2021 waves of the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a national longitudinal data set. CTC exposure was defined based on benefit size calculated using eligibility rules. Outcomes included caregiver/self-rated child health, behavioral problems, and food security. We used individual fixed-effects models to estimate within-person changes in outcomes, comparing pre- and postexpansion periods while adjusting for time-invariant confounders. The 2021 PSID wave (November 2021-June 2022) included three CTC phases: 1) advanced monthly payments (November-December 2021), 2) expired monthly payments (January-April 2022), and 3) following the distribution of remaining lump sum (May-June 2022). Analyses were stratified by these phases to capture potential disparate impacts. We also conducted subgroup analyses by income and race/ethnicity. During the monthly payment period, a $1,000 increase in CTC was associated with a 0.69-point reduction of behavioral problems in the overall sample (95% confidence interval [CI]: -1.31 to -0.067), corresponding to a 10% reduction from baseline. No associations were observed after monthly payments expired. Following the distribution of the lump sum, lower-income children had worse caregiver/self-rated health (-0.075, 95% CI: -0.14 to -0.010) and increased behavioral problems (0.95, 95% CI: 0.45-1.45) compared with higher-income children. Differences by race/ethnicity were also observed. More frequent distribution of unconditional cash benefits may improve child behavioral health. These findings inform ongoing state and federal poverty policymaking and contribute to theoretical knowledge on income and child health.

This study investigates the impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on work disability and Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) claims among Americans. Utilizing the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we examine the effects of EITC exposure from birth to mid-adulthood on work disability risk before retirement. Our analysis reveals that EITC exposure during adulthood significantly reduces the likelihood of work disability, potentially influencing DI trends. Specifically, a $10,000 increase in cumulative EITC exposure is associated with about a 1.25 percentage-point lower probability of any work limitation at ages 50-61 (a 0.94 percentage-point reduction in the likelihood of chronic/severe limitations) and a 0.84 percentage-point reduction in DI receipt, highlighting the EITC's potential role in reducing DI dependency and its broader implications for public policy and social welfare.

ABSTRACT Utilizing the correct form of labor income process as an ingredient in the macro‐labor framework might pave the way for explaining the income and wealth inequalities observed in the data. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this paper employs the minimum distance estimation method to decompose labor income profiles into ex ante and ex post components for different education groups. The results present no ex post heterogeneity but substantial ex ante heterogeneity between college and noncollege graduates. The intercept, linear, and quadratic heterogeneity for college graduates are around 1.5, 2.5, and 3 times as high as those for noncollege graduates, respectively.

Effects of Local Labor Market Conditions at Birth on Later Life Health and Health Behaviors.

ABSTRACT ‘Indebted hand-to-mouth’ (IP-HtM) households are characterized by having no net liquid assets (such as cash, checking, or savings accounts) and being indebted in illiquid wealth (negative net value of illiquid wealth, typically from mortgages not offset by positive illiquid assets such as private retirement accounts). This study documents the prevalence of such households in the United States, their demographic characteristics, portfolio composition, and the persistence of their IP-HtM status over the life cycle. Traditionally, these households have been grouped with Poor hand-to-mouth (P-HtM) households, who lack both net liquid and net illiquid assets. However, we find that the demographic characteristics and income of IP-HtM households are more similar to wealthy hand-to-mouth (W-HtM) households, who do not hold liquid assets but possess significant amounts of illiquid wealth. We further estimate the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) of IP-HtM households and find it to be the highest across most consumption categories using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data. This finding suggests that government stimulus policies are most effective when targeted at IP-HtM households. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers to design and implement fiscal policies that maximize their stimulative effects during economic downturns.

Time in childhood spent living apart from a biological parent or with a repartnered parent is theorized to disrupt norms of intergenerational solidarity and reduce transfers from adult children to parents. Parents' partnership status when children are grown is also expected to influence children's transfers. We estimate the probability of a past-year child-to-parent transfer as a function of childhood family structure and parents' current partnership status. Changes in family structure across the life course are common and can have lasting effects on parent-child relationships. Prior research has focused on static measures of childhood family structure or focused only on parents' later-life partnerships. We use dynamic measures of biological parents' partnership status and coresidence with children from birth to age 17 and parent's current partnership status to estimate the probability that a child transferred time or money to that parent in the last year (N=8,840 parent-child dyads). Data are from the 1968-2013 US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), including the 2013 Rosters and Transfers module. Adult children are most likely to make transfers to a parent who is currently partnered with their other biological parent and more likely to support a currently unpartnered or repartnered mother than a father in the same status. Time in childhood spent living with a parent positively predicts adult children's transfers to that parent. Past and current family arrangements each contribute to adult children's likelihood of providing time or money to parents, especially for fathers.

A hidden cost of drinking: Alcohol use and gendered inequalities in unpaid care work.

Military experience and depression: a prospective multi-cohort analysis across nations.

In the context of women’s increased economic status coupled with declining divorce rates, the “gender revolution framework” suggests that greater gender equality in the division of labor has contributed to the stability of contemporary marriages. Yet recent research on this topic is not in consensus that this is the case. This study uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to test the hypothesis that progress toward gender egalitarianism, and associated changes in the relationship between the division of labor and divorce, is bifurcated across levels of education in the highly stratified United States. The results indicate modest support for the idea that the college educated have been vanguards of the progression of the gender revolution, but also that different forms of gender egalitarianism may have emerged across groups. Among college-educated couples, gender egalitarian and gender-specialized arrangements have similar risks of divorce in recent years, in line with an egalitarian essentialist perspective. Among less educated couples, results suggest that progress toward gender equality in paid labor may reflect economic need rather than shifting gender norms. Together, these findings illustrate how structural and cultural changes in the organization of work and family life have played out differently across levels of education.

The effects of earned income tax credits on intergenerational health mobility in the United States.

Targeting alcohol use in high-risk population groups: a US microsimulation study of beverage-specific pricing policies

Over the past few decades, the United States has witnessed a gender revolution and transformation in family economic arrangements. However, little research has investigated the intergenerational transmission of earnings arrangements within different-sex couples, even though such knowledge illuminates the mechanisms underlying changes and continuities in the economic organization and gender relations within U.S. families. We use a life course perspective to examine whether and how different-sex couples’ earnings arrangements two years after the birth of their first child are shaped by their parents’ earnings arrangements across four periods (same life stage, contemporaneous, sensitive period, and cumulative). Two-generational panel data on different-sex couples and their parents are drawn from the nationally representative Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1968–2021). Regression models indicate that women tend to contribute more earnings if their male partner's mother contributed a larger share to the family income either during the same life stage (two years after her first birth) or over the life course of the male partner. No similar patterns emerge for the earnings arrangements of the female partner's parents. This two-generational life course study underscores the importance of couples’ social origins and reveals the social (re)production of family economic arrangements and its gendered nature.

ABSTRACT This study uses longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (2015–2021) to examine the relationship between the number of years an individual is food insecure and two health measures: psychological distress and self-rated health. Results show that individuals that experience chronic food insecurity (across all four observation years) are more likely to report poor/fair health and higher levels of psychological distress relative to individuals that experience food insecurity for one, two, or three years. Furthermore, the association between food insecurity and both health outcomes is cumulative, showing a linear effect with each additional year of food insecurity.

Computer technology, internet connectivity, and social media use permeate the fabric of contemporary society. For many years, scholars have studied the impact of TV viewing on young people’s academic achievement, health, and other individual well-being measures. Today, young people’s use of social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc.) and participation in other internet activities are at least as time-consuming as TV was in the past. This paper builds on this research by using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data to study how social media use and different types of social media postings by young people affect their academic achievement, adult earnings, psychological, emotional, and social wellbeing, and general health, while controlling for their background characteristics, parents’ education, self-esteem, mental and physical health. The results will provide information to educators, parents/caregivers, and policymakers which will help them generate appropriate guidelines for the time use of young people to promote their long-term welfare and quality of life.

INTRODUCTIONThe growing number of older adults with dementia could have implications for their family members, many of whom will be called upon to provide care.METHODSLeveraging the familial design of the 2021 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we estimate dementia prevalence among older adults, their households, immediate families, and extended families.RESULTSAbout 21% of adults ages 65 and older have dementia. About 26% of both households and immediate families with an adult age 65 and older include an individual with dementia. This figure rises to 37% among extended families of older adults. Among those with older adults, less‐educated households and families have higher dementia rates than do more‐educated ones; extended families with racial/ethnic minorities have higher dementia rates than do their non‐Hispanic White counterparts.DISCUSSIONNearly four in 10 extended families of older adults include someone with dementia, potentially placing family members at risk of becoming caregivers.HighlightsWe provide the first national estimates of dementia in extended families.About 26% of immediate families with an older adult include someone with dementia.Nearly four in 10 extended families of older adults include someone with dementia.Findings have implications for targeting care‐related supports to families.

This study examines the impact of demographic lifecycle stages on the timing of vehicle purchases, using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1999 to 2021. Survival analysis was employed to model the duration until households purchase vehicles, incorporating key lifecycle variables such as age, employment status, marital status, childbirth, home ownership, and the presence of school-going children. The life table results indicate that early adulthood (ages 20–35) is the prime period for vehicle acquisition, with significant peaks around ages 25 to 30. Additionally, the instantaneous hazard of purchasing a vehicle is highest in the late 40s and early 50s. According to the Cox proportional hazards model, employment, marital status, and home ownership significantly increase the likelihood of purchasing a vehicle, while living in multi-unit dwellings decreases it. Interaction effects reveal that married individuals with employed spouses are substantially more likely to purchase vehicles. This study serves as a steppingstone toward integrating demographic lifecycle analysis into car ownership modeling that better reflects real-world scenarios and increases the accuracy of policy and strategic planning.