IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea13/151212.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

"Billions and Billions Served" Heterogeneous Effects of Food Source on Child Dietary Quality

Author

Listed:
  • Smith, Travis A.

Abstract

This paper estimates heterogeneous effects of food source (food away from home, at home and from school) on child dietary quality. Using a quantile estimator designed for panel data, two non-consecutive days of intake are used to identify the effiect of food source across the unconditional distribution of dietary quality. Main results suggest that food away from home has a negative impact on dietary quality for all children except those falling in the very lowest portion of the unconditional distribution. As compared to home-prepared food, school food is found to increase dietary quality for children falling in the bottom quartile of the distribution. For children with a very high underlying proneness to consume a healthful diet, food from school has a negative effect. While food consumed under the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs may not benefit every child (especially at the mean), it does improve the diets of many children whom otherwise would have poorer dietary quality. The implication is that U.S. schools are fertile grounds to improve nutrition skill formation, especially for the most disadvantaged.

Suggested Citation

  • Smith, Travis A., 2013. ""Billions and Billions Served" Heterogeneous Effects of Food Source on Child Dietary Quality," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 151212, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea13:151212
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.151212
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/151212/files/Smith_ChildFoodSource_AAEA2013.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.151212?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. James J. Heckman & Dimitriy V. Masterov, 2007. "The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children ," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 29(3), pages 446-493.
    2. Lin, Biing-Hwan & Guthrie, Joanne F., 2012. "Nutritional Quality of Food Prepared at Home and Away From Home, 1977-2008," Economic Information Bulletin 142361, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Galvao Jr., Antonio F., 2011. "Quantile regression for dynamic panel data with fixed effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 164(1), pages 142-157, September.
    4. Daniel L. Millimet & Rusty Tchernis & Muna Husain, 2010. "School Nutrition Programs and the Incidence of Childhood Obesity," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(3).
    5. Daniel McFadden, 2008. "Human Capital Accumulation and Depreciation," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 30(3), pages 379-385.
    6. Harding, Matthew & Lamarche, Carlos, 2009. "A quantile regression approach for estimating panel data models using instrumental variables," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 133-135, September.
    7. Bhattacharya, Debopam, 2005. "Asymptotic inference from multi-stage samples," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 145-171, May.
    8. Jayanta Bhattacharya & Janet Currie & Steven J. Haider, 2006. "Breakfast of Champions?: The School Breakfast Program and the Nutrition of Children and Families," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(3).
    9. Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, 2009. "Do School Lunches Contribute to Childhood Obesity?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(3).
    10. Peter Hinrichs, 2010. "The effects of the National School Lunch Program on education and health," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 479-505.
    11. Philip M. Gleason & Carol W. Suitor, 2003. "Eating at School: How the National School Lunch Program Affects Children's Diets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(4), pages 1047-1061.
    12. repec:ran:wpaper:710-1 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Charles F. Manski & John V. Pepper, 2000. "Monotone Instrumental Variables, with an Application to the Returns to Schooling," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(4), pages 997-1012, July.
    14. Ivan A. Canay, 2011. "A simple approach to quantile regression for panel data," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 14(3), pages 368-386, October.
    15. Koenker, Roger, 2004. "Quantile regression for longitudinal data," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 74-89, October.
    16. Ralston, Katherine L. & Newman, Constance & Clauson, Annette L. & Guthrie, Joanne F. & Buzby, Jean C., 2008. "The National School Lunch Program: Background, Trends, and Issues," Economic Research Report 56464, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    17. Powell, David, 2013. "A New Framework for Estimation of Quantile Treatment Effects: Nonseparable Disturbance in the Presence of Covariates," Working Papers 824-1, RAND Corporation.
    18. Chernozhukov, Victor & Hansen, Christian, 2008. "Instrumental variable quantile regression: A robust inference approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 379-398, January.
    19. Mancino, Lisa & Todd, Jessica E. & Guthrie, Joanne F. & Lin, Biing-Hwan, 2010. "How Food Away From Home Affects Children's Diet Quality," Economic Research Report 134700, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    20. Beatty, Timothy K.M. & Lin, Biing-Hwan & Smith, Travis A., 2012. "Distributional Changes in U.S. Dietary Quality 1989-2008," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124945, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Travis A. Smith, 2017. "Do School Food Programs Improve Child Dietary Quality?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(2), pages 339-356.
    2. Travis A. Smith & Eliza M. Mojduszka & Shun Chen, 2021. "Did the New School Meal Standards Improve the Overall Quality of Children's Diets?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 1366-1384, December.
    3. Abouk, Rahi & Adams, Scott, 2022. "Breakfast After the Bell: The Effects of Expanding Access to School Breakfasts on the Weight and Achievement of Elementary School Children," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    4. Galina Besstremyannaya, 2014. "The efficiency of labor matching and remuneration reforms: a panel data quantile regression approach with endogenous treatment variables," Working Papers w0206, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    5. Harding, Matthew & Lamarche, Carlos, 2014. "Estimating and testing a quantile regression model with interactive effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 178(P1), pages 101-113.
    6. Bütikofer, Aline & Mølland, Eirin & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2018. "Childhood nutrition and labor market outcomes: Evidence from a school breakfast program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 62-80.
    7. Valizadeh, Pourya & Ng, Shu Wen, 2020. "The New school food standards and nutrition of school children: Direct and Indirect Effect Analysis," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    8. Maria Marino & Alessio Farcomeni, 2015. "Linear quantile regression models for longitudinal experiments: an overview," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 73(2), pages 229-247, August.
    9. Davis, Will & Kreisman, Daniel & Musaddiq, Tareena, 2023. "The Effect of Universal Free School Meals on Child BMI," IZA Discussion Papers 16387, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Manan Roy & Daniel Millimet & Rusty Tchernis, 2012. "Federal nutrition programs and childhood obesity: inside the black box," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-38, March.
    11. Leos-Urbel, Jacob & Schwartz, Amy Ellen & Weinstein, Meryle & Corcoran, Sean, 2013. "Not just for poor kids: The impact of universal free school breakfast on meal participation and student outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 88-107.
    12. Fang, Guanfu & Zhu, Ying, 2022. "Long-term impacts of school nutrition: Evidence from China’s school meal reform," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    13. Galina Besstremyannaya, 2014. "The efficiency of labor matching and remuneration reforms: a panel data quantile regression approach with endogenous treatment variables," Working Papers w0206, New Economic School (NES).
    14. Philip Kostov & Julie Le Gallo, 2018. "What role for human capital in the growth process: new evidence from endogenous latent factor panel quantile regressions," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 65(5), pages 501-527, November.
    15. Galina Besstremyannaya, 2014. "The adverse effects of value-based purchasing in health care: dynamic quantile regression with endogeneity," Discussion Papers 14-006, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    16. Li Tao & Yuanjie Zhang & Maozai Tian, 2019. "Quantile Regression for Dynamic Panel Data Using Hausman–Taylor Instrumental Variables," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 53(3), pages 1033-1069, March.
    17. Galina Besstremyannaya, 2015. "Heterogeneous effect of residency matching and prospective payment on labor returns and hospital scale economies," Discussion Papers 15-001, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    18. David Powell, 2013. "A New Framework for Estimation of Quantile Treatment Effects Nonseparable Disturbance in the Presence of Covariates," Working Papers WR-824-1, RAND Corporation.
    19. Ishdorj, Ariun & Crepinsek, Mary Kay & Jensen, Helen H., 2012. "Children’s Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables: Do School Environment and Policies Affect Choice in School Meals?," 2012 AAEA/EAAE Food Environment Symposium 123534, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Ariun Ishdorj & Mary Kay Crepinsek & Helen H. Jensen, 2013. "Children's Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables: Do School Environment and Policies Affect Choices at School and Away from School?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 341-359.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Public Economics;
    All these keywords.

    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:aaea13:151212. 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.