IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/apecpp/v41y2019i3p404-433..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Re-Examining the SNAP Benefit Cycle Allowing for Heterogeneity

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey H Dorfman
  • Christian Gregory
  • Zhongyuan Liu
  • Ran Huo

Abstract

A well-known feature of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is that some recipients spend a disproportionate amount of their monthly benefit early in the month. Using a finite mixture model that optimally separates households into two groups, coupled with the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey, we re-examine this spending pattern. Results show that a minority of SNAP recipients cause the benefit cycle by spending, on average, two-thirds of their monthly benefit within the first four days. A potential implication of these findings is that more frequent SNAP benefit disbursal or educational programs designed to encourage smoother spending over the month might be of benefit to some SNAP households.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey H Dorfman & Christian Gregory & Zhongyuan Liu & Ran Huo, 2019. "Re-Examining the SNAP Benefit Cycle Allowing for Heterogeneity," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 41(3), pages 404-433.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:apecpp:v:41:y:2019:i:3:p:404-433.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/aepp/ppy013
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilles Celeux & Gilda Soromenho, 1996. "An entropy criterion for assessing the number of clusters in a mixture model," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 13(2), pages 195-212, September.
    2. Brent Kreider & John V. Pepper & Craig Gundersen & Dean Jolliffe, 2012. "Identifying the Effects of SNAP (Food Stamps) on Child Health Outcomes When Participation Is Endogenous and Misreported," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(499), pages 958-975, September.
    3. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Gregory, Christian A. & Singh, Anita, 2016. "Statistical Supplement to Household Food Security in the United States in 2015," Administrative Publications 292103, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Parke E. Wilde & Christine K. Ranney, 2000. "The Monthly Food Stamp Cycle: Shooping Frequency and Food Intake Decisions in an Endogenous Switching Regression Framework," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 82(1), pages 200-213.
    5. Shapiro, Jesse M., 2005. "Is there a daily discount rate? Evidence from the food stamp nutrition cycle," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 303-325, February.
    6. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2005. "Consumption versus Expenditure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(5), pages 919-948, October.
    7. Justine Hastings & Ebonya Washington, 2010. "The First of the Month Effect: Consumer Behavior and Store Responses," NBER Chapters, in: Income Taxation, Trans-Atlantic Public Economics Seminar (TAPES), pages 142-162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    9. Jessica E. Todd, 2015. "Revisiting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cycle of food intake: Investigating heterogeneity, diet quality, and a large boost in benefit amounts," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 37(3), pages 437-458.
    10. Milton Friedman, 1957. "Introduction to "A Theory of the Consumption Function"," NBER Chapters, in: A Theory of the Consumption Function, pages 1-6, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Karen S Hamrick & Margaret Andrews, 2016. "SNAP Participants’ Eating Patterns over the Benefit Month: A Time Use Perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, July.
    12. Nord, Mark & Golla, Anne Marie, 2009. "Does SNAP Decrease Food Insecurity? Untangling the Self-Selection Effect," Economic Research Report 55955, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    13. Douglas Almond & Hilary W. Hoynes & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, 2011. "Inside the War on Poverty: The Impact of Food Stamps on Birth Outcomes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 387-403, May.
    14. Gregory, Christian & Ver Ploeg, Michele & Andrews, Margaret & Coleman-Jensen, Alisha, 2013. "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Participation Leads to Modest Changes in Diet Quality," Economic Research Report 262225, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    15. Hall, Robert E, 1978. "Stochastic Implications of the Life Cycle-Permanent Income Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(6), pages 971-987, December.
    16. Milton Friedman, 1957. "A Theory of the Consumption Function," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie57-1, March.
    17. Travis A. Smith & Joshua P. Berning & Xiaosi Yang & Gregory Colson & Jeffrey H. Dorfman, 2016. "The Effects of Benefit Timing and Income Fungibility on Food Purchasing Decisions among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(2), pages 564-580.
    18. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Gregory, Christian A. & Singh, Anita, 2016. "Household Food Security in the United States in 2015," Economic Research Report 262191, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Gregory, Christian & Singh, Anita, 2014. "Household Food Security in the United States in 2013," Economic Research Report 183589, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    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. de Rezende, Rafael & Egert, Katharina & Marin, Ignacio & Thompson, Guilherme, 2022. "A white-boxed ISSM approach to estimate uncertainty distributions of Walmart sales," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1460-1467.
    2. Scharadin, Benjamin, 2022. "The efficacy of the dependent care deduction at maintaining diet quality," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    3. Lee, Ji Yong & Nayga Jr, Rodolfo M. & Jo, Young & Restrepo, Brandon J., 2022. "Time use and eating patterns of SNAP participants over the benefit month," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    4. Benjamin Scharadin & Yang Yu & Edward C. Jaenicke, 2021. "Household time activities, food waste, and diet quality: the impact of non-marginal changes due to COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 399-428, June.
    5. Cotti, Chad D. & Gordanier, John M. & Ozturk, Orgul D., 2021. "Does distributing SNAP benefits later in the month smooth expenditures?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).

    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. Kuhn, Michael A., 2018. "Who feels the calorie crunch and when? The impact of school meals on cyclical food insecurity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 27-38.
    2. Pourya Valizadeh & Travis A. Smith & Michele Ver Ploeg, 2021. "Do SNAP Households Pay Different Prices throughout the Benefit Month?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 1051-1075, September.
    3. Irma Arteaga & Colleen Heflin & Leslie Hodges, 2018. "SNAP Benefits and Pregnancy-Related Emergency Room Visits," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(6), pages 1031-1052, December.
    4. Tiehen, Laura & Newman, Constance & Kirlin, John A., 2017. "The Food-Spending Patterns of Households Participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Findings From USDA's FoodAPS," Economic Information Bulletin 262461, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Lee, Ji Yong & Nayga Jr, Rodolfo M. & Jo, Young & Restrepo, Brandon J., 2022. "Time use and eating patterns of SNAP participants over the benefit month," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    6. Susan Chen & Le Wang, 2021. "SNAP participation, diet quality, and obesity: robust evidence with estimation techniques without external instrumental variables," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 1641-1667, September.
    7. Anne T. Byrne & David R. Just, 2021. "The Other Half: An Examination of Monthly Food Pantry Cycles in the Context of SNAP Benefits," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(2), pages 716-731, June.
    8. Todd, Jessica E. & Gregory, Christian, 2018. "Changes in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program real benefits and daily caloric intake among adults," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 111-120.
    9. Todd, Jessica E., 2013. "Revisiting the SNAP Cycle of Food Intake: Investigation Heterogeneity and Diet Quality," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150295, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Michael A. Kuhn, 2021. "Electronic Benefit Transfer and Food Expenditure Cycles," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 744-773, June.
    11. Dahan, Momi & Sayag, Doron, 2024. "Scarcity and consumption priorities," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    12. Agustina Laurito & Amy Ellen Schwartz, 2019. "Does School Lunch Fill the “SNAP Gap” at the End of the Month?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(1), pages 49-82, July.
    13. Almada, Lorenzo N. & Tchernis, Rusty, 2018. "Measuring effects of SNAP on obesity at the intensive margin," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 150-163.
    14. Cotti, Chad D. & Gordanier, John M. & Ozturk, Orgul D., 2021. "Does distributing SNAP benefits later in the month smooth expenditures?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    15. Gassman-Pines, Anna & Bellows, Laura & Copeland, William E. & Hoyle, Rick H. & Odgers, Candice L., 2023. "Day-to-day variation in adolescent food insecurity," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    16. Heflin, Colleen & Arteaga, Irma & Hodges, Leslie & Ndashiyme, Jean Felix & Rabbitt, Matthew P., 2019. "SNAP benefits and childhood asthma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 203-211.
    17. Marieka M. Klawitter & C. Leigh Anderson & Mary Kay Gugerty, 2013. "Savings And Personal Discount Rates In A Matched Savings Program For Low-Income Families," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(3), pages 468-485, July.
    18. François Gerard & Joana Naritomi, 2021. "Job Displacement Insurance and (the Lack of) Consumption-Smoothing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(3), pages 899-942, March.
    19. Karen S Hamrick & Margaret Andrews, 2016. "SNAP Participants’ Eating Patterns over the Benefit Month: A Time Use Perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, July.
    20. Grigoli, Francesco & Herman, Alexander & Schmidt-Hebbel, Klaus, 2018. "Saving in the world," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 257-270.

    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:oup:apecpp:v:41:y:2019:i:3:p:404-433.. 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: Oxford University Press (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.