IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/apecpp/v46y2024i4p1268-1285.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does the reference period matter when evaluating the effect of SNAP on food insecurity?

Author

Listed:
  • Colleen Heflin
  • James P. Ziliak

Abstract

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the cornerstone food assistance program in the United States and has been shown to reduce the risk of food insecurity. Most research on the causal effect of SNAP on food insecurity relies on the 12‐month food insecurity scale along with usage of SNAP at any point during the year. However, recent social surveys ask about experiences with food insecurity in the 30 days prior to the survey. In this paper, we examine whether similar protective effects of SNAP against food insecurity are obtained whether using the 30‐day or 12‐month food insecurity scale using the December Supplement of the Current Population Survey for 2002–2019. Results indicate comparable average treatment effects of SNAP in mitigating food insecurity across both 30‐day and 12‐month reference periods.

Suggested Citation

  • Colleen Heflin & James P. Ziliak, 2024. "Does the reference period matter when evaluating the effect of SNAP on food insecurity?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(4), pages 1268-1285, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:apecpp:v:46:y:2024:i:4:p:1268-1285
    DOI: 10.1002/aepp.13420
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13420
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/aepp.13420?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:wly:apecpp:v:46:y:2024:i:4:p:1268-1285. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2040-5804 .

    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.