The Century Foundation has released a new report, “Doing More for Our Children,” by a Columbia University research team that includes RSF scholars and grantees Irwin Garfinkel, Jane Waldfogel, and Christopher Wimer, with David Harris.

In their study, the authors explored policy measures for fighting child poverty in the United States, which they called “stubbornly high, with more than 12 million American children—16.5 percent of all children—currently living in poverty.” They modeled five child allowance policies and five Childhood Tax Credit (CTC) policies to examine their impact on the child poverty rate, number of children in poverty, cost and marginal cost (based on the current CTC). The authors found that a universal child allowance of $4,000 a year would cut child poverty in the U.S. in half, while a more modest $2,500 universal child allowance would more than triple the anti-poverty effect of the current Child Tax Credit (CTC).

“Policymakers could substantially reduce the child poverty rate, if they were willing to commit to a universal child allowance,” the authors said. “An expanded CTC with a more generous phase in rate would also meaningfully reduce poverty among children and families.”

Key findings from the report include:

• Providing a child allowance of $2,500 to all children under age 6 (leaving intact the CTC for children age 6 and above) would lift 3.2 million children out of poverty.
• Investing in a universal child allowance that provides $2,500 per child for all families with children (age 0–17) would lift 5.5 million children out of poverty—more than triple the antipoverty effect of the current CTC.
• A universal child allowance of $4,000 per child (age 0–17) would cut child poverty in half and lift 8.1 million children out of poverty.
• While the current CTC plays an important antipoverty role, it does little to assist children living in deep poverty (because it is linked to work), but a $4,000 child allowance would reduce the deep poverty rate by almost two-thirds.
• A dollar invested in a universal child allowance would do more to reduce child poverty than a dollar spent on an expanded child tax credit.

Click here to read or download the report in full from The Century Foundation.