Three Essays on the U.S. Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs
Author | : Pourya Valizadeh |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 286 |
Release | : 2018 |
ISBN-10 | : OCLC:1078649637 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (37 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: The goal of the federal food and nutrition assistance programs in the U.S. is to improve the nutritional well-being and health of low-income households. This dissertation explores the extent to which these programs have accomplished this goal. The first essay examines how the implementation and the subsequent expiration of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) affected the material well-being of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants. I find that ARRA implementation on average increased the overall material well-being of SNAP participants, as measured by their total nondurable spending, whereas the ARRA expiration reduced their well-being. Furthermore, using a fixed-effect quantile estimator, I find that ARRA implementation led to a first-order improvement in the distributions of both total nondurable and food spending. I also find that low-food and high-food spending households were the most responsive to increase in benefits. ARRA expiration, however, affected households with the lowest total nondurable and food expenditures. The second essay estimates the welfare effects of the SNAP benefit cycle 0́3 the observation that food spending of SNAP households spikes upon benefits arrival and declines over the remainder of the benefit month. I first show that the price component of food expenditure is also sensitive to the benefit arrival. I then estimate welfare changes due to the changes in prices paid. I find that by the end of the third week of the benefit month, households are paying 22% less on food bundles, implying a change in money-metric welfare of $4.94 per day or 6.6% of the average amount spent on the first two days of the month. The final essay estimates the effects of aging out of the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on quality of children's diets and rates of food insecurity. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find a fairly large decrease in overall diet quality of children as they become age-ineligible for WIC. Moreover, by investigating the entire diet quality distribution, I find that children prone to lower- quality diets experience larger decreases in nutrition. I find no significant effect on rates of food insecurity.