Expenditure response to increases in in-kind transfers: Evidence from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Timothy Beatty and Charlotte Tuttle

No 122873, 2012 AAEA/EAAE Food Environment Symposium from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: Recent studies on food stamp participant households' marginal propensity to spend out of food stamps versus income have had contradictory results: experimental studies have found household behavior aligns with standard economic theory where households' marginal propensity to spend on food out of food stamps is equivalent to cash income; observational studies found that households have a larger marginal propensity to spend out of food stamps than cash income. In this study, we re-examine this question by estimating how an unprecedentedly large increase in food stamp benefits due to the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act affects food-at-home expenditure. We find that the policy change caused households to increase food-at-home expenditure as well as increase households' share of total expenditure allocated toward food-at-home expenditure. We compare these results to a time period without a meaningful food stamp policy change and find our results are unique to the ARRA implementation time period.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22
Date: 2012-04-20
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Journal Article: Expenditure Response to Increases in In-Kind Transfers: Evidence from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaeafe:122873

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.122873

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