Three essays on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Wei, Min-Fang

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121456 Copy

Description

Title

Three essays on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Author(s)

Wei, Min-Fang

Issue Date

2023-07-10

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Gundersen, Craig

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Gundersen, Craig

Committee Member(s)

• Winter-Nelson, Alex
• Coppess, Jonathan
• Janzen, Sarah
• Fan, Linlin

Department of Study

Agr & Consumer Economics

Discipline

Agricultural & Applied Econ

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
• food insecurity
• Survey of Income and Program Participation
• Food Stamp Program

Abstract

Food insecurity has emerged as a leading, if not the leading, indicator of well-being among vulnerable persons in the United States. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) is the central component of the social safety net against food insecurity. Extensive evidence has shown that SNAP plays a pivotal role in reducing the prevalence of food insecurity; still, a high proportion of SNAP recipients are food insecure. To explore these mysteries, this dissertation uses the 2018 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and examines SNAP from three aspects. First, is the eligible population being accurately identified? Second, following closely to the previous question, how does the eligibility issue influence the examination of SNAP’s impact on food insecurity? And third, how is the probability of food insecurity related to the structure of the SNAP benefit formula? The first chapter of my dissertation studies the extent to which the literature addressing SNAP’s impact accurately identifies the eligible population. Eligibility for SNAP depends on three criteria – gross income, net income, and assets that each needs to be below a threshold. Partly due to the lack of information needed to calculate the net income and assets on nationally representative datasets, existing studies define eligibility based on only the gross income criterion (and ignore the asset and net income criteria). If there is a misclassification of who is SNAP-eligible, these findings could be biased. As the first comprehensive investigation of SNAP’s eligibility issues, we find that among households at lower risk of food insecurity (e.g., seniors, homeowners), over a third of those who are eligible under the gross income criterion is, in fact, ineligible under the complete criteria. In addition, in an effort to increase SNAP enrollments, states have the flexibility to waive the asset test or set a more lenient gross income criterion. We document that the former policy does increase the proportion of households eligible for SNAP, whereas the latter still leaves many ineligible. We also show that the impact of SNAP differs by the eligible samples being applied. In particular, the gap in food insecurity rates between participants and non-participants is markedly lower when the asset and gross income tests are applied rather than one just the gross income test is applied. The second chapter contributes to a parallel frame of work that has examined the adequacy of the SNAP maximum benefit as a means to address the relatively high food insecurity among SNAP recipients. Here we examine the relationship between food insecurity and two components of benefit determination – gross income and deductions – among SNAP recipients. Our primary findings are three-fold. First, we find that, in most specifications, food insecurity and very low food security (VLFS) rates are lower among those with higher gross incomes, even after controlling for relevant covariates. This relationship is more pronounced for VLFS than for food insecurity. Second, the deductions used to construct net income are positively related to food insecurity and VLFS. Insofar as deductions are designed to be higher for those in greater need, this finding is evidence of effective targeting of SNAP benefits. Third, we find potential scope for SNAP to allocate benefits more effectively to households with someone with a disability. The third chapter primarily builds on the findings in the first chapter; namely, the truly eligible SNAP population under the complete set of criteria differs from those that are only gross income eligible. Insofar as the latter category has lower food insecurity rates, this could distort comparisons between SNAP-eligible participants and non-participants and might bias the estimation of SNAP’s impact on food insecurity. In this paper, we apply a partial identification approach under several classifications of eligible samples. Specifically, we examine how the average treatment effect (ATE) of SNAP on household food insecurity varies by imposing a partial or a complete set of eligibility tests. We find that, consistent with existing literature, SNAP reduces food insecurity under the majority of specifications of eligible samples. We also show that the net impact of SNAP is more substantial when accounting for the asset test along with the gross income test. These results are, in the main, similar to that using the eligible samples under the complete set of SNAP criteria.

Graduation Semester

2023-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Min-Fang Wei

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