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The main objection to the 2021 expanded child tax credit was that it would cause people to quit their jobs. This panel will rebut this objection from multiple research angles and will connect to a broader discussion about changing the narrative around guaranteed income and work.

Sara Constantino (she/her), Assistant Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at Northeastern

Sara Constantino is an assistant professor in the Psychology Department and the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. She works broadly on social and environmental policy and decision-making. Her research focuses on understanding the interplay between individual, institutional and ecological factors on perceptions, policy preferences and resilience to extreme events or shocks. In particular, recent studies look at the role of polarization, social norms and governance in stimulating or stifling support for climate action. She also works on the impacts and politics of basic income programs. Prior to starting at Northeastern, she was an associate research scholar at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and a lecturer at the High Meadows Environmental Institute. Before this, she was senior research fellow in
guaranteed income with the Jain Family Institute and a founding editor at Nature Human Behavior. She received her bachelor’s degree in economics from McGill University, a master’s degree in economics from University College London, and a Ph.D. in cognitive sciences, with a focus on learning and decision-making in dynamic environments, from New York University.

Nicole Russo is a Principal Behavioral Designer on the Economic Justice team at ideas42, where she oversees narrative change, benefits access, and public service improvement projects in the U.S. Her work includes applying behavioral insights to shift harmful narratives about poverty, unlock support for more generous social policy, and increase access to SNAP, Medicaid, cash assistance and basic income. As leader of the NYC Behavioral Design Team, Nicole oversees an ideas42 team embedded within the Mayor’s Office that applies behavioral design to make City programs and policies more equitable, accessible, and efficient for New Yorkers experiencing poverty. Her work has included redesigning staff-facing systems to increase access to SNAP and cash benefits for 3 million New Yorkers, supporting the design of guaranteed income programs in Texas and Virginia, and launching narrative change campaigns in Detroit and New York. Nicole holds a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University and a Master in Public Affairs from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Erik Simmons, PhD is a Senior Behavioral Designer at ideas42. His current work focuses on using principles drawn from applied behavioral science and implementation science to dismantle harmful poverty narratives. His work broadly explores the interdisciplinary nexus of behavioral sciences, health, social justice, systems science, and policy. He is also an Honorary Fellow at the University of Queensland. He has formerly held research positions at Boston College and Queensland University of Technology, leadership roles on multinational World Bank projects, and a senior science advisor role with the behavior science company Evidn. Dr. Simmons is interested in exploring how his expertise in behavioral science and psychology can be used to promote social justice and improve the health, wellbeing, and experience of marginalized communities. Prior to his work in economic justice and the non-profit sector, Dr. Simmons had a career competing and coaching mixed martial artists professionally around the world.

Brandon Enriquez is a PhD candidate in economics at MIT. His research focuses on topics in labor economics, including wage garnishment, racial wage inequality, and labor supply responses to transfer programs.

Jack Landry (he/him), Jain Family Institute

Jack Landry is a Research Associate at the Jain Family Institute. Recently, he has worked extensively on issues related to the Child Tax Credit, including: take-up of the credit among non-filers and impacts of non-filers on poverty reduction estimates; implications of alternative design choices such as partial or full refundability of a CTC of varying amounts and targeting; and issues with predicting large labor supply effects due to the either income or substitution effects. Before coming to JFI, he worked as a pre-doctoral research professional at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

CTC Learnings and Impact on Narratives