Starting Sooner: Should Cash Payments Begin During Pregnancy?
Since the pandemic, there has been increasing interest in regular cash payments as an approach to help families meet their expenses and achieve their goals for themselves and their children. The 2021 expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit—which increased benefit levels, included families with low and moderate incomes historically left out, and introduced monthly payment delivery—helped reduce child poverty to a historic low, reduced food insufficiency and financial hardship, and helped achieve other positive outcomes. As policymakers consider a permanent federal expansion, many states have taken action to enhance or establish their own state-level Child Tax Credits, often drawing on features from the 2021 federal expansion.
These cash payments to families often begin after the birth of a child. But should cash payments begin sooner? This brief reviews the research on the potential impact of cash delivered during pregnancy on birth and longer-term outcomes. This research suggests that beginning cash payments during pregnancy can yield important benefits. Given that many other nations target cash resources to families during pregnancy, policymakers hoping to improve children’s long-term outcomes in the United States should consider whether targeting resources to families prior to a birth would be a wise investment.
Key Points
Research shows that pregnancy is an important period when contextual and environmental factors can impact children’s short- and long-term well-being.
Evidence also indicates that cash payments that arrive during pregnancy have causal impacts on short- and long-run outcomes throughout infancy, childhood, and adulthood.
The United States remains an outlier in the lack of cash support to families during pregnancy, despite these payments being common across other nations.
Suggested Citation
Wimer, Christopher, Elizabeth Ananat, David Harris, Anastasia Koutavas, Dominic Richardson, and Ryan Vinh. 2023. “Starting sooner: Should cash payments begin during pregnancy?” Poverty and Social Policy Brief, vol. 7, no. 6. Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.
www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/publication/2023/cash-payments-during-pregnancy