View Research by Author - Paul Johnson

Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/PaulJohnson

Federal Expenditures on Infants and Toddlers in 2007 looks comprehensively at federal spending and tax expenditures targeted toward infants and toddlers. This appendix details our data sources, the programs we include, and the methodology used to estimate the percentage of federal expenditures that went to infants and toddlers in 2007.

This report examines more than 100 programs through which the federal government spends money on children and calculates the amount spent on children under three. These first time expenditure estimates provide a place to start in gauging the priority the nation places on investing in very young children and in comparing expenditure patterns to researchers’ findings about investments that work. For example, despite extensive child development research underscoring the importance of quality early care and education programs for infants and toddlers, especially those in poverty, just 7 percent of federal funding for children between birth and age 2 went toward these efforts in 2007.

Extensive research shows investing in very young children can help build a strong future workforce, improve children's educational success and health, and potentially reduce some of the social ills that drain the nation’s resources and will. What investments does the United States currently make in infants and toddlers?

This paper examines how private, employer-sponsored health insurance and publicly provided health insurance affect the distribution of income among families in 1989 and 1992. Data are drawn from the March 1990 and 1993 Current Population Surveys (CPS). Information on the value of employer-sponsored health insurance and on Medicaid comes from the Urban Institute's TRIM2 microsimulation model. The analysis focuses on nonelderly households with children and documents changes in median cash income for one- and two-parent families, dividing them according to racial/ethnic affiliation. It establishes trends in cash income inequality among racial/ethnic groups and examines the effect of health benefits on inequality both within and among the groups.

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