child tax credit

State & Hill

Faculty news, spring 2026

May 7, 2026

Ford School experts are publishing research, sharing their knowledge, and getting recognized.

A series of six headshots of people smiling

State & Hill

Michigan redefines support for new families

Dec 8, 2025

Rx Kids, the nation’s first community-wide prenatal and infant cash program, has improved infant health, reduced evictions, and achieved a high return on investment. Now, with new state commitments, it will reach about one-third of all births statewi...

Five adults smiling, one holding a framed children's artwork.

News

Herd addresses barriers to health benefit access

Oct 27, 2025

Ford School Professor Pamela Herd addressed barriers to families accessing health benefits at a recent conference. Herd, the Carol Kakalec Kohn Professor of Social Policy, was speaking a forum organized by the Tax Policy Center, a collaboration betwe...

Publication

U-M policy expert part of national team exploring impacts of pandemic-era tax credits

Sep 29, 2025

Katherine Michelmore and experts from across the country authored a congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The work of the Committee on Federal Policy Impacts on Child Poverty provides a com...

News

Natasha Pilkauskas joins Poverty Solutions as associate director

Sep 25, 2025

Social welfare policy scholar Natasha Pilkauskas will join Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan as associate faculty director of faculty engagement, effective Oct. 1.

News

U.S. poverty: Shaefer and Seefeldt discuss labor markets, child tax credits, and racial gaps

Sep 11, 2025

U.S. inflation-adjusted household income increased but poverty rates showed only modest changes last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported , offering a mixed snapshot of how American households fared as the economy returned to pre-coronavirus pandemi...

State & Hill

Faculty news, spring 2025

May 7, 2025

Read about the latest faculty accomplishments and news.

Headshots of faculty featured within this article.

State & Hill

Discourse: Fordies in the news, fall 2024

Dec 17, 2024

“Most likely the perception within the Israel Defence Forces and at the political level within Netanyahu’s war cabinet is that they have the momentum. . . . when one side believes it has the momentum against its adversary, you don’t want to give it...

Javed Ali, Catherine Hausman, Molly Kleinman, Kristin Seefeldt, Betsey Stevenson, Natasha Pilkauskas, Luke Shaefer

News

Rx Kids shows promising results after its first year

Dec 9, 2024

Since its start in January of 2024, Rx Kids has been a lifesaver for young families in Flint Michigan. The program was co-founded by the Ford School's Luke Shaefer and provides Flint residents with $1,500 mid-pregnancy, and $500 each month for the ba...

News

Michelmore discusses how expanded tax credits benefited family well-being on new podcast

Nov 7, 2024

In a new episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, Ford School’s Katherine Michelmore reflects on her career—from her first job as a research assistant at the Urban Institute, to her current position at the Ford School studying the effects of...

In the Media

Stevenson on Trumps economic plans for Michigan

Oct 28, 2024 The Detroit News

Betsey Stevenson, Ford School professor explained what plans Trump may have for Michigan. She said with all the cuts they are looking to make, "At some point, the dam there might burst." Then she said, "it might mean things like cuts to programs that...

In the Media

Pilkauskas supports expansion of the child tax credit under a Harris presidency

Oct 11, 2024 The Gander

Presidential candidate Vice-President Kamala Harris has plans to expand the child tax credit if granted presidency in the upcoming 2024 election. Discussing her research on the expansion of the child tax credit from 2021, the Ford School's Natasha Pi...

News

Seefeldt and Shaefer report on poverty findings from new census data

Sep 13, 2024

Networks reporting the new census data on poverty are quoting Ford School professors, Kristin Seefeldt and Luke Shaefer, highlighting the policy impacts on poverty. Here are some recent Seefeldt and Shaefer mentions in the media on poverty. “The Nagg...

In the Media

Pilkauskas on child tax credit allowing parents to leave partners

Aug 15, 2024 The New York Times

Natasha Pilkauskas, Ford School professor talked with the New York Times about the child tax credit helping some mothers leave unwanted partners. She said, "It’s a positive outcome if you don’t have to live together after you’ve broken up,” and the t...

Publication

Child Tax Credit expansion boosted housing affordability and stability, U-M study shows

Aug 8, 2024

A temporary, pandemic-era expansion of the Child Tax Credit improved housing affordability for families with low incomes, according to University of Michigan research. The study by Natasha Pilkauskas and Katherine Michelmore, associate professors of ...

State & Hill

Katherine Michelmore and Natasha Pilkauskas on policy rooted in evidence and facts

Apr 24, 2024

Ford School students take on a variety of different roles after graduation—some do research, some will engage in advocacy, others will become civil servants. As instructors of two of the core research methods courses that our students take, we have s...

State & Hill

Faculty news, spring 2024

Apr 24, 2024

Kamissa Camara chaired the Bipartisan Senior Study Group for the Sahel at the U.S. Institute of Peace. The study group’s comprehensive report critically assesses opportunities for peace, security, and economic development in the Sahel. Charlotte Cava...

(Top row, left to right) Fullerton Rico, Hills, Holz, Jacob, and Leiser (Bottom row, left to right) Morenoff, Raimi, Shipan, Spencer, and Stevenson

News

Poverty Solutions at U-M grows partnerships in poverty alleviation in 2023

Feb 1, 2024

Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan last year informed the largest-ever increase in state funding for youth homelessness programs, advised federal policymakers on place-based strategies for tackling poverty and laid the groundwork for inn...

Collage of Poverty Solutions faculty and students

Publication

Michelmore and Pilkauskas on Congressional proposal to expand the child tax credit

Jan 29, 2024

Congress is currently considering a $33 billion measure that would adjust the earning requirements and make it easier for many lower-income families to receive the full child tax credit, an average credit that is about $1,130 higher than in 2022. Fam...

Natasha Pilkauskas and Katherine Michelmore

News

Shaefer anticipates major poverty reduction in upcoming Flint prenatal and infant cash program

Nov 10, 2023

“I can’t talk about this without smiling. We are getting ready to eliminate extreme poverty for families with babies in Flint.” Ford School Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy Luke Shaefer is speaking about “RxK...

News

Michelmore and Pilkauskas discuss the benefits of tax credits

Oct 9, 2023

Over the past few months, Ford School associate professors Katherine Michelmore and Natasha Pilkauskas have been discussing their research and insights on the 2021 Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit in a wide array of outlets. Here ar...

In the Media

Luke Shaefer praises Minnesota child tax credit

Oct 9, 2023 Minneapolis Star Tribune

Luke Shaefer, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Minnesota's initiative appears to be one of the most ambitious child tax credits in the nation. It covers one of the broadest age ranges — through age 17 — and the $1,750 maximum credit may be one of the larges...

Photo of Luke Shaefer in the Ford School's Towsley Reading Room

News

Ford School’s Katherine Michelmore Senate testimony - “Assessing 25 years of the Child Tax Credit”

Jul 13, 2023

Ford School Associate Professor Katherine Michelmore testified before the United States Senate Finance Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight, sharing her insights into the effectiveness, and drawbacks, of the first 25 years of the Child Tax Cred...

Publication

Declaring the “end” of the pandemic presents short- and long-term hazards - Lantz

Jun 7, 2023

The World Health Organization declared of an end to the COVID-19 pandemic’s global public health emergency status on May 5, 2023. On May 11, many of the U.S. federal pandemic-related public health and economic actions came to an end. Ford School prof...

State & Hill

Faculty News, spring 2023

May 3, 2023

Dominique Adams-Santos, Celeste Watkins-Hayes, and PhD candidate Kayonne Christy contributed a chapter, "Narratives in Context: Locating Racism and Sexism in Black Women's Health Experiences," to The Routledge Companion to Intersectionalities. Th...

Headshots of Kathryn M. Dominguez, Rusty Hills, Morela Hernandez, Brian Jacob, Barry Rabe, Megan Stewart, David Thacher, Christina Weiland

In the Media

Shaefer: SNAP cuts will hurt families

Mar 19, 2023 Michigan Advance

Luke Shaefer, Michigan Advance: "I want to stress how incredibly successful the expansion of the safety net was during the COVID crisis — the expansion of SNAP, extended unemployment insurance, the expanded child tax credit, as well as rental assista...

News

President Ono salutes the Ford School, Luke Shaefer, in Inauguration address

Mar 8, 2023

As President Santa. J. Ono was inaugurated as the 15th president of the University of Michigan on March 8, he laid out a vision for change and challenge to continue to address the world’s greatest problems. In his address to an audience of students, ...

In the Media

Pilkauskas: Child Tax Credit "lost in the wash of stimulus money"

Jan 3, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Natasha Pilkauskas, Los Angeles Times: "It’s baffling to me that it (the expanded Child Tax Credit) wasn’t more popular." The enhanced payment may have been lost in the wash of stimulus money Americans received at the height of the pandemic, Pilk...

News

Shaefer and Hanna-Attisha urge Congress to renew expanded Child Tax Credit

Dec 14, 2022

In a new commentary, Luke Shaefer, Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy, and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, an MSU professor of public health, call on Congress to do one last thing in their lame duck session: renew the expan...

In the Media

Shaefer applauds expanded Child Tax Credit

Nov 25, 2022 The New York Times

Luke Shaefer, The New York Times: "It’s worlds ahead of the kind of evidence we usually have."

Photo of Luke Shaefer seated in Weill Hall's Great Hall