Negative Income Tax Trial (NITT)

In partnership with a local community college in in Omaha, Nebraska, the Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) at the University of Pennsylvania will conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the impacts of a negative income tax for MCC students, with particular attention to educational and career advancement outcomes. The sample will include students in a degree-seeking program, as well as those in non-degree programs, such as those working towards professional certificates.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Poverty; Education Advancement
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Negative Income Tax; Other: Control

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 750
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Stacia West, PhD; Phone Number: 215-898-5512; Email: swest11@utk.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Nebraska
    • Omaha, Nebraska, United States, 68111
      • Recruiting
      • Metropolitan Community College (MCC)

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion criteria:

• 19 years of age or older, and
• Currently in 2nd semester of MCC Associate's program OR completed at least one Level-1 credential OR within one month of completing a Level 2 credential, and
• Have a total adjusted gross income (AGI) $6,000 below the SPM for the reported family size, and
• Compliant with community college's enrollment, participation, and documentation requirements

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Associate's Degree Seekers with NIT; Students currently enrolled in an Associate's Degree program at the community college will receive a negative income tax for a duration of two years followed by a linear titration of payments for one year	Other: Negative Income Tax; Negative income tax calculated by the supplemental poverty measures less the household's prior tax year adjusted gross income, then divided by 12 to arrive at a monthly cash transfer
Experimental: Credential Seekers with NIT; Students currently enrolled in a credential program at the community college will receive a negative income tax for a duration of one year followed by a linear titration of payments for six months	Other: Negative Income Tax; Negative income tax calculated by the supplemental poverty measures less the household's prior tax year adjusted gross income, then divided by 12 to arrive at a monthly cash transfer
Active Comparator: Control; These students will not receive the negative income tax	Other: Control; No negative income tax payment

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Educational Program Completion	Number of participants who complete academic program, whether Associate's Degree or credential	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months
Workforce participation	Number of participants who become employed in industry associated with earned degree or credential	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Food security (Household Food Insecurity Access Scale)	9 items to assess past four week food insecurity: 1) worry about not having enough food, 2) inability to eat preferred foods, 3) eating a limited variety of foods, 4) having to eat foods that they did not want to eat, 5) eating a smaller meal than needed, 6) eating fewer meals in a day, 7) having no food to eat, 8) going to sleep at night hungry, and 9) going a whole day and night without eating. Items scored as "yes" (1) or "no" (0).	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months
Financial wellbeing (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Financial Wellbeing Scale)	Each item is scored 0 to 4 and summed to a total. The sum total is then converted to a total response value on the CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale score from 0-100, where higher scores indicate a greater sense of financial well-being.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months
Psychological distress (Kessler 6)	Each item is scored from zero "none of the time" to four "all of the time." Scores of the 6 items are then summed, yielding a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 24. Low scores indicate low levels of psychological distress and high scores indicate high levels of psychological distress.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months
Health Behavior Inventory-20	Assessment of health promotion and risk behaviors, Likert scaled inventory with 5 subscales	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months
Housing status	Number of participants who report a change in housing status (e.g., renter, homeowner, rent-to-own, etc.) or report stable housing status in the prior month.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months
General health	Self-reported general health as measured by one question from the RAND Short Form Health Survey (known as SF-36): "In general, would you say your health is:", with a 5-point scale from Poor to Excellent.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2030
• Study Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2030

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 4, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 4, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): March 11, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 8, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 4, 2026
• Last Verified: September 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Cash transfer
• Other Study ID Numbers: 26-6149

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No