Take-up and Targeting: Experimental Evidence from SNAP

Amy Finkelstein (afink@mit.edu) and Matthew Notowidigdo
Additional contact information
Amy Finkelstein: MIT

No 11558, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper develops a framework for evaluating the welfare impact of various interventions designed to increase take-up of social safety net programs in the presence of potential behavioral biases. We calibrate the key parameters using a randomized field experiment in which 30,000 elderly individuals not enrolled in – but likely eligible for – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are either provided with information that they are likely eligible, provided with this information and also offered assistance in applying, or are in a "status quo" control group. Only 6 percent of the control group enrolls in SNAP over the next 9 months, compared to 11 percent of the Information Only group and 18 percent of the Information Plus Assistance group. The individuals who apply or enroll in response to either intervention receive lower benefits and are less sick than the average enrollee in the control group. The results are consistent with the existence of optimization frictions that are greater for needier individuals, suggesting that the poor targeting properties of the interventions reduce their welfare gains.

Keywords: targeting; take-up; food stamps; SNAP; welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 H53 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2018-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Published - published in: Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2019, 123 (3), 1505–1556,

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp11558.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Take-Up and Targeting: Experimental Evidence from SNAP (2019)
Working Paper: Take-up and Targeting: Experimental Evidence from SNAP (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11558

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
library@iza.org

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte (hinte@iza.org).