Loading the library…
family economic policy & poverty
The operative claimAccess to food assistance (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program / food stamps) in childhood causally improves long-run health and economic outcomes: large-scale studies of the program's original county-by-county rollout find early-childhood access raises adult human capital, economic self-sufficiency, and life expectancy and lowers chronic disease — though some contemporaneous child outcomes are mixed.
Established that early-childhood access to food assistance improves long-run adult health and economic outcomes; contested edges are the magnitude of contemporaneous child effects and the food-versus-income mechanism.
Drawn from natural-experiment studies exploiting the 1961–1975 Food Stamps rollout (Almond/Hoynes/Schanzenbach 2010; Bailey 2020, 17.5M linked records) plus life-course food-security evidence (Insolera 2022) and a systematic review of income's causal effect (Cooper & Stewart 2020). Effects concentrate on early-childhood exposure and the most disadvantaged; some IV and short-term studies find mixed effects, including increased child behavioral problems.
Bailey, M. J., Hoynes, H. W., Rossin-Slater, M., & Walker, R (2020). Is the social safety net a long-term investment? Large-scale evidence from the Food Stamps program. The Review of Economic Studies.
Observational
Access to Food Stamps before age five improved adult human capital (6% SD), economic self-sufficiency, neighborhood quality, life expectancy (+1.2 years), and reduced incarceration.
doi.org/10.3386/w26942Almond, D., Hoynes, H. W., & Schanzenbach, D. W (2010). Childhood exposure to the Food Stamp Program: Long-run health and economic outcomes. Working paper (PSID-based).
Observational
Food Stamp exposure had effects decades later, largest for adult health, with weaker positive evidence on adult economic outcomes — consistent with fetal-origins long-run effects.
View sourceInsolera, N. E., Cohen, A. J., & Wolfson, J. A (2022). SNAP and WIC participation during childhood and food security in adulthood, 1984–2019. American Journal of Public Health.
Observational
Childhood participation in SNAP and WIC was associated with substantially higher odds of improved food security in adulthood (SNAP+WIC OR 4.16; SNAP alone OR 3.28).
doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2022.306967Cooper, K., & Stewart, K (2020). Does household income affect children's outcomes? A systematic review of the evidence. Child Indicators Research.
Systematic review
Found strong support that household income has a positive causal effect on children's cognitive, social-behavioral, and health outcomes, particularly in low-income households.
doi.org/10.1007/s12187-020-09782-0Counter-authority (1). Studies an adversary may cite — surfaced deliberately so the grade is honest about its limits.
Miller, D. P., & Morrissey, T. W (2021). SNAP participation and the health and health care utilisation of low-income adults and children. Public Health Nutrition.
Observational
SNAP improved several health and access outcomes but also increased the probability of unaffordable prescription medicine and raised psychological distress in adults and behavioral problems in children under 10.
doi.org/10.1017/s13689800210038154 supporting · 1 counter verified sources
Some instrumental-variables and short-term studies find mixed contemporaneous effects, including increased child behavioral problems or no health-cost reduction; the program raises total family resources, so food is not cleanly isolated from income; gains concentrate on early-childhood exposure; and the rollout cohorts predate the modern program.