Local Food Prices, SNAP Purchasing Power, and Child Health

Erin Bronchetti, Garret Christensen and Hilary Hoynes

No 24762, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) is one of the most important elements of the social safety net. Unlike most other safety net programs, SNAP varies little across states and over time, which creates challenges for quasi-experimental evaluation. Notably, SNAP benefits are fixed across 48 states; but local food prices vary, leading to geographic variation in the real value – or purchasing power – of SNAP benefits. In this study, we provide the first estimates that leverage variation in SNAP purchasing power across markets to examine effects of SNAP on child health. We link panel data on regional food prices to National Health Interview Survey data and use a fixed effects framework to estimate the relationship between local purchasing power of SNAP and children’s health and health care utilization. We find that lower SNAP purchasing power leads to lower utilization of preventive health care and more days of school missed due to illness. We find no effect on reported health status.

JEL-codes: H53 I12 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published as Erin T. Bronchetti & Garret Christensen & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2019. "Local Food Prices, SNAP Purchasing Power, and Child Health," Journal of Health Economics, .

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Journal Article: Local food prices, SNAP purchasing power, and child health (2019)
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