Understanding Data About the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the Circana Consumer Network Panel

Christian A. Gregory

No 352084, Technical Bulletins from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: The Circana (formerly IRI) Consumer Network Panel contains a wealth of information on consumer food-at-home choices, store channels, store locations, and prices paid, as well as demographics of the respondent households. This report investigates the quality of two variables related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation: a participation indicator and a utilization indicator. Both indicators are self-reported, and both could be used to examine the food-at-home purchase behavior of SNAP households. The report finds that the utilization and participation indicators sometimes contradict each other and that monthly patterns of participation implied by the utilization indicator are significantly different from survey and administrative records. However, as a stand-in for annual SNAP participation, the utilization indicator yields estimates like other Federal survey data collections. The report also finds that the SNAP sample in Circana has higher income than the SNAP population, that differences in spending contradict what is known from other research, and that SNAP households’ food-at-home spending declines over the SNAP month.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Security and Poverty; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Research Methods/Statistical Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27
Date: 2025-02
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uerstb:352084

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.352084

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