Mothers as insurance: Family spillovers in WIC

Marianne Bitler, Janet Currie, Hilary Hoynes, Krista Ruffini, Lisa Schulkind and Barton Willage

Journal of Health Economics, 2023, vol. 91, issue C

Abstract: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a widely used program. Previous research shows that WIC improves birth outcomes, but evidence about impacts on older children and their families is limited. We use a regression discontinuity leveraging a loss of benefits at age five when children become ineligible for WIC and examine nutritional and laboratory outcomes for adults and children. We find little impact on children who aged out of the program. But caloric intake falls and food insecurity increases among adult women, suggesting that mothers protect children by consuming less themselves. We find no effect on others in the household.

Keywords: WIC, spillovers, child nutrition and health, maternal responses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Working Paper: Mothers as Insurance: Family Spillovers in WIC (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:91:y:2023:i:c:s0167629623000619

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102784

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