Working Papers
The Effect of SNAP Disbursement Disruptions on Grocery Purchases [Draft pending clearance for public dissemination]
Abstract: Many researchers find that SNAP participants do not spend their monthly benefits smoothly, causing food insecurity and other adverse consequences at the end of the benefit month. This study explores the impact of higher SNAP payment frequency on the cyclicality of households' grocery spending during the 2018-2019 federal government shutdown when states were allowed to issue March benefit in more than one payment. Using detailed grocery purchase data from the Nielsen Homescan Panel in a triple-difference framework, I find twice-monthly payments lead to smoother grocery spending, especially on perishable items, indicating potential smoother consumption. These findings support the policy recommendation of more frequent SNAP payment to help families stretch their monthly food budget. The research also highlights the need for future studies to examine the impact of payment frequency on consumption and other outcomes in a context with higher external validity.
The Effect of SNAP on Dietary Quality: Evidence from FoodAPS
Abstract: As the largest food assistance program in the United States, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aims to end hunger and improve nutrition and health among poor households. Although food expenditures have increased, evidence of improvements in nutrition has been mixed. Based on the Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey data, this paper examines the causal effects of SNAP participation through various approaches that address self-selection into the program and misclassification of participation status. The use of control strategies that rely on independence assumptions results in a negative effect of SNAP participation on diet quality, even if participation increases food consumption. The results of partial identification fail to identify a strict positive effect on diet quality when monotonicity assumptions are taken into account.
SNAP Work Requirement and Criminal Recidivism [Draft]
Abstract: Under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, work requirements were imposed on able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) to continuously receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, with the option for waivers under certain local labor market conditions. In this paper, I study the effects of SNAP ABAWD work requirement on criminal recidivism using administrative prison records on offenders released from 2011 and 2017. Exploiting the timing of each offender's release from prison, the approval of SNAP work requirement waivers, and the age cut-off of ABAWDs, I find that being released to a county with SNAP work requirement reduces the risk of recidivism. While counties with ABAWD time limit have higher recidivism rates overall, ex-prisoners who are just below the upper bound of ABAWD age requirement have a lower rate of recidivism due to property crimes than those who aged out of work requirement at release.
A Sweet Burden? The Effect of The Bride Price on Parents’ Health [with X. Li and Y. Ding]
Abstract: The bride price, as an informal institution originated from traditional culture, is pervasive in many areas of the developing world in a form of payment from the family of the groom to that of the bride at marriage. We study the effects of bride price on parents’ health in China. Using information on bride price payment and various health measures from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), combined with a control function approach, we find that the bride price significantly reduces self-reported health among the grooms’ parents. The deterioration in health is associated with declines in both physical and mental health. The reductions are most prominent among younger, less-educated, lower-income parents living in rural areas. Mechanism analysis suggests the negative health outcomes are driven by higher debts and lower fitness expenditures caused by bride price payments.