Does Food Assistance Drive Spending on Sugary Foods? Evidence from the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer Program

Georgina Cisneros and Brandyn Churchill

No 35835, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We provide evidence on the extent to which food assistance affects spending on sugary items by studying the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program, which provided funds to families of children who lost access to free and reduced-price school meals due to COVID-19 pandemic school closures. Leveraging state-level variation in the timing of P-EBT disbursements using a stacked difference-in-differences identification strategy with NielsenIQ Consumer Panel data, we find that P-EBT disbursement was associated with a 16-percent increase in weekly spending on sugary items among SNAP-eligible households with school-aged children. Notably, this increase exceeded the percentage increase in overall food spending for this group, suggesting that SNAP-eligible households with school-aged children allocated a disproportionately large share of their P-EBT-driven purchases toward sugary items relative to their pre-period baseline. We do not detect changes among households unlikely to have received P-EBT benefits or in placebo disbursement years.

JEL-codes: D12 H53 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-10
Note: EH
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