At the end of 2012, certain income tax policies were set to end and others to become effective. Central among these was the planned expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts (the “Bush tax cuts”), which had been extended for two years in 2010.

The authors determine what items are purchased using the earned income tax credit (EITC) - one of the largest sources of public support for lower-income working families in the U.S. They find that recipient households' EITC payments are used primarily for vehicle purchases and transportation...

The Earned Income Tax Credit is unique among social programs in that benefits are not paid out evenly across the calendar year. We exploit this feature of the EITC to investigate how the credit influences the food expenditure patterns of eligible households. We find that eligible households...