In-kind Government Assistance and Crowd-out of Charitable Services: Evidence from Free School Meals

Krista Ruffini, Orgul Ozturk and Pelin Pekgun

No 33562, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Many community organizations provide services similar to government programs, but there is limited evidence how increased government aid affects the use and availability of charitable services. This study examines how greater access to federal nutrition assistance through schoolwide free meal programs affects food bank use within the U.S.’s largest food bank network. A 10 percent increase in access to free school meals reduces the amount of food that food banks distribute by 0.9-1.4 percent, without significantly reducing donations, fundraising activity, or the amount of food available. The reduction of food bank use is only found in areas where relatively few students previously qualified for government aid. Our findings highlight that even safety net programs that serve a specific population and offer distinct services can reduce pressures on charitable organizations, particularly in areas previously underserved by government assistance.

JEL-codes: H52 I0 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-03
Note: CH PE
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w33562.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

Related works:
Working Paper: In-Kind Government Assistance and Crowd-Out of Charitable Services: Evidence from Free School Meals (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33562

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w33562
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().