Elizabeth Cascio (Dartmouth College, Hanover)

 How Much Does Amnesty Stretch the Safety Net? Evidence from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (with Ethan G. Lewis)

Abstract: 
This paper estimates the effect of immigrant legal status on Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and food stamp program (FSP) transfers using variation from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), which authorized the largest U.S. amnesty to date. Our empirical approach exploits both the timing of IRCA and the geographic unevenness of applications for legal status under the law. We find that areas with higher applicant shares experienced relatively large increases in EITC transfers after applicants became permanent residents, both at the state level and at the metropolitan area level within three heavily-affected states – California, Florida, and Texas. We identify the effect of legal status on FSP participation under weaker assumptions, taking advantage of agricultural workers’ earlier access to that program, and find effects that cannot be distinguished from zero. The findings suggest that legal reprieves for unauthorized parents today could benefit their U.S. citizen children by opening their access to the EITC.