Who Benefits Most from SNAP? A Study of Food Security and Food Spending

Partha Deb and Christian Gregory

No 22977, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the effects of SNAP participation on food insecurity and food spending using finite mixture models that allow for a priori unspecified heterogeneous effects. We identify a low food security subgroup comprising a third of the population for whom SNAP participation increases the probability of high food security by 20-30 percentage points. There is no affect of SNAP on the remaining two-thirds of the population. SNAP increases food spending in the previous week by $50-$65 for a low modal spending subgroup comprising two-thirds of the population, with no effect for the remaining third of the population.

JEL-codes: D12 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
Note: PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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