[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaeafe/123520.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Did the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Increase in SNAP Benefits Reduce the Impact of Food Deserts?

Author

Listed:
  • Andrews, Margaret S.
  • Bhatta, Rhea
  • Ver Ploeg, Michele
Abstract
Public policy discussion of the problem of food deserts has concentrated on proximity to retail food stores providing nutritious, affordable foods. Because they offer a wide array of healthful products at lower prices, physical access to a supermarket or supercenter has come to be the standard of adequacy. Less attention has been given to how economic incentives influence access to retail food stores in the wider food environment. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) enacted a sizable increase in SNAP benefits effective April 2009. Though the primary purpose of the increase was to stimulate the economy, we argue that it had a secondary effect of encouraging SNAP participants to redeem more of their benefits at larger, lower-priced retailers. To investigate the effect of this policy change, we use county-level, administrative data on SNAP redemptions at different types of authorized food stores from May 2007 to May 2010. Data from the Economic Research Service’s Food Desert Locator are used to classify counties according to the percent of their population residing in food deserts. Results show that the SNAP benefit increase is associated with a greater percentage of redemptions at superstores. Estimates are stable across a number of specifications that also control for gas prices and store-type density. Within our sample of counties, we show that an $80 maximum SNAP benefit increased the percentage of benefits redeemed at supermarkets by 1.4 percentage points. In order to achieve a similar increase in redemptions at superstores, store density would have to increase from one superstore every 24 square miles to 1 superstore every 15 square miles. Impacts of the benefit increase were positive, but somewhat smaller in areas with more of their population residing in food deserts.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrews, Margaret S. & Bhatta, Rhea & Ver Ploeg, Michele, 2012. "Did the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Increase in SNAP Benefits Reduce the Impact of Food Deserts?," 2012 AAEA/EAAE Food Environment Symposium 123520, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaeafe:123520
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.123520
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/123520/files/Ver%20Ploeg_Bhatta_Andrews_DidTheAmericanRecovery.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.123520?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter M. Feather, 2003. "Valuing Food Store Access: Policy Implications for the Food Stamp Program," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(1), pages 162-172.
    2. Erik Hurst & James P. Ziliak, 2006. "Do Welfare Asset Limits Affect Household Saving?: Evidence from Welfare Reform," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(1).
    3. repec:mpr:mprres:2615 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. James X. Sullivan, 2006. "Welfare Reform, Saving, and Vehicle Ownership: Do Asset Limits and Vehicle Exemptions Matter?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(1).
    5. Leibtag, Ephraim S., 2006. "The Impact Of Big-Box Stores On Retail Food Prices And The Consumer Price Index," Economic Research Report 7238, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Dora Gicheva & Justine Hastings & Sofia Villas-Boas, 2010. "Investigating Income Effects in Scanner Data: Do Gasoline Prices Affect Grocery Purchases?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 480-484, May.
    7. Chen, Susan E. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M. & Snyder, Samantha D., 2009. "Does Where You Live Make You Fat? Obesity and Access to Chain Grocers," Working papers 53838, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    8. Jerry Hausman & Ephraim Leibtag, 2007. "Consumer benefits from increased competition in shopping outlets: Measuring the effect of Wal-Mart," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(7), pages 1157-1177.
    9. Ver Ploeg, Michele & Nulph, David & Williams, Ryan Blake, 2011. "Mapping Food Deserts in the U.S," Amber Waves:The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, pages 1-4.
    10. Susan Chen & Raymond J. G. M. Florax & Samantha Snyder & Christopher C. Miller, 2010. "Obesity and Access to Chain Grocers," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(4), pages 431-452, October.
    11. Christian Broda & Ephraim Leibtag & David E. Weinstein, 2009. "The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 77-97, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shannon, Jerry, 2014. "What does SNAP benefit usage tell us about food access in low-income neighborhoods?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 89-99.
    2. Beatty, Timothy & Ambrozek, Charlotte & Pagan, Gina, 2024. "The Role of Food Assistance in Rural Areas," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343887, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ver Ploeg, Michele & Breneman, Vince & Dutko, Paula & Williams, Ryan & Snyder, Samantha & Dicken, Chris & Kaufman, Phillip, 2012. "Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Updated Estimates of Distance to Supermarkets Using 2010 Data," Economic Research Report 262227, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Dutko, Paula & Ver Ploeg, Michele & Farrigan, Tracey, 2012. "Characteristics and Influential Factors of Food Deserts," Economic Research Report 262229, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Wilde, Parke & Llobrera, Joseph & Ver Ploeg, Michele, 2014. "Population Density, Poverty, and Food Retail Access in the United States: An Empirical Approach," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 17(A), pages 1-16, March.
    4. Fitzpatrick, Katie & Greenhalgh-Stanley, Nadia & Ver Ploeg, Michele, 2019. "Food deserts and diet-related health outcomes of the elderly," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-1.
    5. David Atkin & Benjamin Faber & Marco Gonzalez-Navarro, 2018. "Retail Globalization and Household Welfare: Evidence from Mexico," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(1), pages 1-73.
    6. Meilin Ma & Tina L. Saitone & Richard J. Volpe & Richard J. Sexton & Michelle Saksena, 2019. "Market Concentration, Market Shares, and Retail Food Prices: Evidence from the U.S. Women, Infants, and Children Program," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 542-562, September.
    7. Leah Hamilton, 2021. "Asset Limits in Public Assistance and Savings Behavior Among Low‐Income Families," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(1), pages 454-467, January.
    8. Bonanno, Alessandro & Ghosh, Gaurav S., 2010. "SNAP Efficacy and Food Access – A Nationwide Spatial Analysis," 115th Joint EAAE/AAEA Seminar, September 15-17, 2010, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany 116437, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Rahkovsky, Ilya & Snyder, Samantha, 2015. "Food Choices and Store Proximity," Economic Research Report 210316, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    10. Meilin Ma & Tina L Saitone & Richard J Volpe & Richard J Sexton & Michelle Saksena & Craig GundersenEditor, 2019. "Market Concentration, Market Shares, and Retail Food Prices: Evidence from the U.S. Women, Infants, and Children Program," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 41(3), pages 542-562.
    11. Baum, Charles L., 2009. "The effects of vehicle ownership on employment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 151-163, November.
    12. Lorien Rice & Cynthia Bansak, 2014. "The Effect Of Welfare Asset Rules On Auto Ownership, Employment, And Welfare Participation: A Longitudinal Analysis," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(2), pages 306-333, April.
    13. James P. Ziliak & Craig Gundersen & Anna Vaudin, 2023. "Introduction to senior hunger special issue," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(1), pages 221-233, March.
    14. Tuttle, Charlotte & Beatty, Timothy K. M., 2017. "The Effects of Energy Price Shocks on Household Food Security in Low-Income Households," Economic Research Report 260484, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    15. Deokrye Baek & Christian Raschke, 2016. "The Impact of SNAP Vehicle Asset Limits on Household Asset Allocation," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 146-175, July.
    16. Leah Hamilton & Ben Alexander-Eitzman & Whitney Royal, 2015. "Shelter From the Storm," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(1), pages 21582440155, February.
    17. Charles Baum, 2012. "The effects of food stamp receipt on weight gained by expectant mothers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(4), pages 1307-1340, October.
    18. Jessica E Todd & Young Jo & James Richard Boohaker, 2019. "The Impact of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Policies on Asset Holdings," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 305-328, June.
    19. Anne T. Byrne & David R. Just, 2023. "What is free food worth? A nonmarket valuation approach to estimating the welfare effects of food pantry services," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(4), pages 1063-1087, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaeafe:123520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.