IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v45y2026i2ne70086.html

Transaction Costs and the Take‐Up of Social Safety Net Programs: Evidence From the Combined Application Project

Author

Listed:
  • Rosa Kleinman

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of transaction costs on the take‐up and targeting of social safety net programs in the context of multi‐program enrollment by exploiting the Combined Application Project (CAP), a widespread state‐level policy designed to encourage enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) among elderly recipients of Supplemental Security Income. I show that the CAP increased SNAP take‐up by 8–13 percentage points, or about 17%–24%. The increase was suggestively larger among those with a higher probability of being food insecure. Exploiting heterogeneity in the format of the CAP across states, I find that “auto‐enrollment” most effectively increased SNAP take‐up.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosa Kleinman, 2026. "Transaction Costs and the Take‐Up of Social Safety Net Programs: Evidence From the Combined Application Project," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(2), March.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:45:y:2026:i:2:n:e70086
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.70086
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.70086
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pam.70086?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:jpamgt:v:45:y:2026:i:2:n:e70086. 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: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    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.