Are Household Food Expenditures Responsive to Entry Into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program?*

AbstractObjectiveTo systematically review the potential impact of reducing the set of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)-eligible foods (e.g. not allowing purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages with SNAP benefits) on expenditures for restricted foods.DesignThe impact on food expenditures of a $US 1 reduction in available SNAP benefits can be used to estimate the impact of restrictions on SNAP-eligible foods. An electronic search of EconPapers, AgEcon Search, EconLit, WorldCat, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, PubMed and NALDC, and a snowball search were conducted to obtain a sample of studies up to March 2015 that estimate the impacts of SNAP and other income on household food expenditures. The studies were classified according to study population, study design and whether they attempted to correct for major study design biases.SettingEstimates were extracted from fifty-nine published and unpublished studies.SubjectsUS households.ResultsFifty-nine studies were found, yielding 123 estimates of the impact of SNAP benefits on food expenditures and 117 estimates of the difference in impacts between SNAP benefits and other income. Studies correcting for or mitigating study design biases had less estimate variation. Estimates indicate that expenditures on the restricted item would decrease by $US 1·6 to $US 4·8 if $US 10 of SNAP benefits would have otherwise been spent, with a median overall impact of $US 3.ConclusionsThe present literature suggests that restrictions on SNAP-eligible items may result in a small but potentially meaningful decrease in SNAP expenditures for restricted items. Further research is needed to evaluate whether this would translate into improvements in diet quality.

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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation and current restricted food expenditures: implications for policy

Public Health Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s1368980020000749 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (18) ◽

pp. 3448-3455

Author(s):

Andrea Leschewski ◽

Annemarie Kuhns

Keyword(s):

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ◽

Bivariate Analysis ◽

Supplemental Nutrition ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Assistance Program ◽

Snack Foods ◽

Household Food ◽

Nutrition Assistance ◽

Instrumental Variables Approach

AbstractObjective:National concerns over food insecurity and obesity have prompted legislation seeking to further restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) purchases. The objective of this study is to provide insight on the potential impact of proposed purchase restrictions by comparing SNAP participant and income-eligible non-participants’ expenditures on current SNAP-restricted foods, that is, hot foods, prepared foods, alcohol, vitamins and meal supplements.Design:Cross-sectional study. Bivariate analysis and multivariable regression analysis with an instrumental variables approach were employed to compare the probability of purchasing and expenditures on current SNAP-restricted foods among SNAP participants and income-eligible non-participants.Setting:National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey, 2012–2013.Participants:2513 households, of which 1316 were SNAP participants and 1197 were income-eligible non-participants.Results:Both the share of households purchasing and household expenditures on current SNAP-restricted foods were similar among SNAP participants and income-eligible non-participants.Conclusions:Results provide further empirical evidence that proposed SNAP purchase restrictions on sugar-sweetened beverages, snack foods and luxury foods are unlikely to have a meaningful effect on SNAP household food purchases.

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Does Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Reduce Food Insecurity among Households with Children? Evidence from the Current Population Survey

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18063178 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (6) ◽

pp. 3178

Author(s):

Jun Zhang ◽

Yanghao Wang ◽

Steven T. Yen

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Current Population Survey ◽

Population Survey ◽

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ◽

Supplemental Nutrition ◽

Assistance Program ◽

Current Population ◽

Households With Children ◽

Nutrition Assistance

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is designed to improve household diet and food security—a pressing problem confronting low-income families in the United States. Previous studies on the issue often ignored the methodological issue of endogenous program participation. We revisit this important issue by estimating a simultaneous equation system with ordinal household food insecurity. Data are drawn from the 2009–2011 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS), restricted to SNAP-eligible households with children. Our results add to the stocks of empirical findings that SNAP participation ameliorates food insecurity among adults only, but increases the probabilities of low and very low food security among children. These contradictory results indicate that our selection approach with a single cross section is only partially successful, and that additional efforts are needed in further analyses of this complicated issue, perhaps with longitudinal data. Socio-demographic variables are found to affect food-secure households and food-insecure households differently, but affect SNAP nonparticipants and participants in the same direction. The state policy tools, such as broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE) and simplified reporting, can encourage SNAP participation and thus ameliorate food insecurity. Our findings can inform policy deliberations.

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