IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea25/360963.html

Payment Digitization and Retailer Fraud in Food Assistance: Evidence from Store Sanctions

Author

Listed:
  • Ambrozek, Charlotte
  • Beatty, Timothy K.M.
  • Zhan, Wenjie

Abstract

We study the impact of payment digitization that transitions food assistance payments from paper vouchers to debit cards on retailer fraud. We hand-collected the rollout schedule of payment digitization for two major federal food assistance programs: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). We link these schedules to administrative data on store sanctions and compare sanction patterns between counties that implemented digitized payments and those that had not yet transitioned. We find that payment digitization increases disqualifications under SNAP but decreases them under WIC. We explore potential explanations for this divergence and discuss its implications. Our findings highlight how digital technologies can have varying effects on the administration of public programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Ambrozek, Charlotte & Beatty, Timothy K.M. & Zhan, Wenjie, 2025. "Payment Digitization and Retailer Fraud in Food Assistance: Evidence from Store Sanctions," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 360963, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea25:360963
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.360963
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/360963/files/75257_94426_105300_dq_aaea2025_abz.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.360963?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. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    2. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    3. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    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. Bas Scheer & Wiljan van den Berge & Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2022. "Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling," CPB Discussion Paper 435, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Ying Liu & Hongyun Huang & William Mbanyele & Fengrong Wang & Huiling Liu, 2024. "Does the issuance of green bonds nudge environmental responsibility engagements? Evidence from the Chinese green bond market," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 1-42, December.
    3. Banasaz, Mohammadmahdi & Bose, Niloy & Sedaghatkish, Nazanin, 2025. "Identification of loan effects on personal finance: A case for small U.S. entrepreneurs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    4. Shumway, Clayson & Wilson, Riley, 2022. "Workplace disruptions, judge caseloads, and judge decisions: Evidence from SSA judicial corps retirements," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    5. Ardiyono, Sulistiyo K., 2022. "Covid-19 pandemic, firms’ responses, and unemployment in the ASEAN-5," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 337-372.
    6. Mac Clay, Pablo & Börner, Jan & Sellare, Jorge, 2023. "Institutional and macroeconomic stability mediate the effect of auctions on renewable energy capacity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    7. Krekel, Christian & Rode, Johannes & Roth, Alexander, 2023. "Do Wind Turbines Have Adverse Health Impacts?," IZA Discussion Papers 16505, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Fabre, Brice & Sangnier, Marc, 2025. "Where and why do politicians send pork? Evidence from central government transfers to French municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    9. Caliendo, Marco & Olthaus, Rebecca & Pestel, Nico, 2025. "Long-term employment effects of the minimum wage in Germany: New data and estimators," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    10. Catalina Amuedo‐Dorantes & Francisca M. Antman, 2022. "De facto immigration enforcement, ICE raid awareness, and worker engagement," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(1), pages 373-391, January.
    11. D. Mark Anderson & Yang Liang & Joseph J. Sabia, 2024. "Mandatory seatbelt laws and traffic fatalities: A reassessment," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 513-521, April.
    12. Nadja van 't Hoff & Giovanni Mellace & Seetha Menon, 2025. "Gender Differences in Healthcare Utilisation -- Evidence from Unexpected Adverse Health Shocks," Papers 2509.01310, arXiv.org.
    13. Sheng, Di, 2021. "Emission Trading System and Air Quality: Evidence from China," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 314071, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Leone, Fabrizio, 2021. "Foreign Ownership and Robot Adoption," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 2111, CEPREMAP.
    15. Arne Henningsen & Guy Low & David Wuepper & Tobias Dalhaus & Hugo Storm & Dagim Belay & Stefan Hirsch, 2024. "Estimating Causal Effects with Observational Data: Guidelines for Agricultural and Applied Economists," IFRO Working Paper 2024/03, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    16. Pubali Chakraborty & Kanika Mahajan, 2023. "Scaling Up to Decrease the Divide: Firm Size and Female Employment," Working Papers 103, Ashoka University, Department of Economics, revised 05 Feb 2025.
    17. Stefan Bauernschuster & Michael Grimm & Cathy M. Hajo, 2023. "The Impact of Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Clinics on Early 20th Century U.S. Fertility and Mortality," CESifo Working Paper Series 10421, CESifo.
    18. Fabio Bothner & Annette Elisabeth Töller & Paul Philipp Schnase, 2022. "Do Lawsuits by ENGOs Improve Environmental Quality? Results from the Field of Air Pollution Policy in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-18, May.
    19. repec:rim:rimwps:24-14 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D’Haultfœuille, 2023. "Two-way fixed effects and differences-in-differences with heterogeneous treatment effects: a survey," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 26(3), pages 1-30.
    21. Urban, Carly, 2022. "Does State-Mandated Financial Education Reduce High School Graduation Rates?," IZA Discussion Papers 15402, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    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:aaea25:360963. 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.