IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v38y2020i1p67-80.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Targeted Vouchers Instill Habits? Evidence From Women, Infants, And Children

Author

Listed:
  • David Frisvold
  • Emily Leslie
  • Joseph P. Price

Abstract

We examine whether programs that provide vouchers to households continue to influence behavior after the household leaves the program. Using detailed scanner data, we test whether benefit vouchers received through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) change household purchasing decisions and whether these changes persist even after households are no longer eligible to participate in the program. In 2009, the package of goods available through WIC vouchers changed. Examining variation due to this package change, we show that the WIC vouchers change purchasing decisions during eligibility, but that effects fade after eligibility ends. (JEL I38, I18, J13)

Suggested Citation

  • David Frisvold & Emily Leslie & Joseph P. Price, 2020. "Do Targeted Vouchers Instill Habits? Evidence From Women, Infants, And Children," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 67-80, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:38:y:2020:i:1:p:67-80
    DOI: 10.1111/coep.12423
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/coep.12423
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/coep.12423?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. Hilary W. Hoynes & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, 2009. "Consumption Responses to In-Kind Transfers: Evidence from the Introduction of the Food Stamp Program," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 109-139, October.
    2. Heather Royer & Mark Stehr & Justin Sydnor, 2015. "Incentives, Commitments, and Habit Formation in Exercise: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Workers at a Fortune-500 Company," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 51-84, July.
    3. Michèle, Belot & Jonathan, James & Patrick, Nolen, 2013. "Changing Eating Habits - A Field Experiment in Primary Schools," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-44, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    4. Matthew Harding & Ephraim Leibtag & Michael F. Lovenheim, 2012. "The Heterogeneous Geographic and Socioeconomic Incidence of Cigarette Taxes: Evidence from Nielsen Homescan Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 169-198, November.
    5. Loewenstein, George & Price, Joseph & Volpp, Kevin, 2016. "Habit formation in children: Evidence from incentives for healthy eating," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 47-54.
    6. List, John A. & Samek, Anya Savikhin, 2015. "The behavioralist as nutritionist: Leveraging behavioral economics to improve child food choice and consumption," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 135-146.
    7. Stacey R. Finkelstein & Ayelet Fishbach, 2010. "When Healthy Food Makes You Hungry," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(3), pages 357-367, October.
    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. Marit Hinnosaar, 2023. "The Persistence of Healthy Behaviors in Food Purchasing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(3), pages 521-537, May.
    2. Wang, Shaonan & Zhen, Chen, 2022. "The Impact of the 2009 WIC Food Package Revision on Participants’ Food and Beverage Purchases," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322390, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Travis A. Smith & Pourya Valizadeh, 2024. "Aging out of WIC and child nutrition: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(2), pages 904-924, March.

    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. Manuela Angelucci & Silvia Prina & Heather Royer & Anya Samek, 2015. "When Incentives Backfire: Spillover Effects in Food Choice," NBER Working Papers 21481, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Toni Mora & Beatriz G. Lopez‐Valcarcel, 2018. "Breakfast choice: An experiment combining a nutritional training workshop targeting adolescents and the promotion of unhealthy products," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 306-319, February.
    3. John A. List & Anya Samek & Terri Zhu, 2022. "Incentives to Eat Healthily: Evidence from a Grocery Store Field Experiment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 489-509, April.
    4. Ozturk, Orgul D. & Frongillo, Edward A. & Blake, Christine E. & McInnes, Melayne M. & Turner-McGrievy, Gabrielle, 2020. "Before the lunch line: Effectiveness of behavioral economic interventions for pre-commitment on elementary school children's food choices," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 597-618.
    5. Loewenstein, George & Price, Joseph & Volpp, Kevin, 2016. "Habit formation in children: Evidence from incentives for healthy eating," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 47-54.
    6. Carrera, Mariana & Royer, Heather & Stehr, Mark & Sydnor, Justin & Taubinsky, Dmitry, 2018. "The limits of simple implementation intentions: Evidence from a field experiment on making plans to exercise," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 95-104.
    7. Marit Hinnosaar, 2023. "The Persistence of Healthy Behaviors in Food Purchasing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(3), pages 521-537, May.
    8. Nan Yang & Yong Long Lim, 2018. "Temporary Incentives Change Daily Routines: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Singapore’s Subways," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3365-3379, July.
    9. Mortimer, Duncan & Harris, Anthony & Wijnands, Jasper S. & Stevenson, Mark, 2021. "Persistence or reversal? The micro-effects of time-varying financial penalties," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 72-86.
    10. Alex Imas & Sally Sadoff & Anya Samek, 2017. "Do People Anticipate Loss Aversion?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(5), pages 1271-1284, May.
    11. List, John A. & Samek, Anya Savikhin, 2015. "The behavioralist as nutritionist: Leveraging behavioral economics to improve child food choice and consumption," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 135-146.
    12. Nguyen, Trang & de Brauw, Alan & van den Berg, Marrit, 2022. "Sweet or not: Using information and cognitive dissonance to nudge children toward healthier food choices," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    13. Belot, Michèle & James, Jonathan & Nolen, Patrick, 2016. "Incentives and children's dietary choices: A field experiment in primary schools," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 213-229.
    14. Jan Marcus & Thomas Siedler & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2022. "The Long-Run Effects of Sports Club Vouchers for Primary School Children," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 128-165, August.
    15. Biroli, Pietro & Boneva, Teodora & Raja, Akash & Rauh, Christopher, 2022. "Parental beliefs about returns to child health investments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 231(1), pages 33-57.
    16. Jie, Yun, 2018. "Prepayment effect: Prepayment with clawback increases task participation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 210-218.
    17. Carrera, Mariana & Royer, Heather & Stehr, Mark & Sydnor, Justin, 2018. "Can financial incentives help people trying to establish new habits? Experimental evidence with new gym members," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 202-214.
    18. Chien‐Yu Lai & John A List & Anya Samek, 2020. "Got Milk? Using Nudges to Reduce Consumption of Added Sugar," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(1), pages 154-168, January.
    19. Benito-Ostolaza, Juan Miguel & Echavarri, Rebeca & Garcia-Prado, Ariadna & Oses-Eraso, Nuria, 2021. "Using visual stimuli to promote healthy snack choices among children," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    20. Rachel Griffith & Sarah Smith & Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder, 2014. "Getting a healthy start? Nudge versus economic incentives," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 14/328, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

    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:bla:coecpo:v:38:y:2020:i:1:p:67-80. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.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.