Effects of a Tax-Time Savings Experiment on Material and Health Care Hardship Among Low-Income Filers
Publication Date
9-14-2017
Summary
Material and health care hardship is common among households with low incomes and is associated with a host of adverse financial, health, and social outcomes. But recent evidence has suggested that these outcomes can be mitigated with modest savings. Using data from the Refund to Savings Initiative, a team of CSD researchers assessed whether R2S interventions informed by behavioral economics can positively impact hardship among a sample of low- and moderate-income tax filers (N = 4,738). The authors find that filers who received an intervention had a statistically significant, lower probability of both types of hardship 6 months after tax filing, compared to the control group.
Document Type
Article
Category
Financial Inclusion
Subarea
Financial Behaviors
Original Citation
Despard, M. R., Taylor, S. H., Ren, C., Russell, B. D., Grinstein-Weiss, M., & Raghavan, R. (2018). Effects of a tax-time savings experiment on material and health care hardship among low-income filers. Journal of Poverty, 22(1), 156–178. doi:10.1080/10875549.2017.1348431
Project
Refund to Savings (R2S)
Keywords
Refund to Savings (RS), TurboTax Freedom Edition, Household Financial Survey (HFS), material hardship, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), savings
Recommended Citation
Despard, M. R., Taylor, S. H., Ren, C., Russell, B. D., Grinstein-Weiss, M., & Raghavan, R. (2018). Effects of a tax-time savings experiment on material and health care hardship among low-income filers. Journal of Poverty, 22(1), 156–178. doi:10.1080/10875549.2017.1348431