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Publication year
How Are SNAP Benefits Spent? Evidence from a Retail Panel
Resource type
Authors/contributors
- Hastings, Justine (Author)
- Shapiro, Jesse M. (Author)
Title
How Are SNAP Benefits Spent? Evidence from a Retail Panel
Abstract
We use a novel retail panel with detailed transaction records to study the effect of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on house-hold spending. We use administrative data to motivate three approaches to causal inference. The marginal propensity to consume SNAP-eligible food (MPCF) out of SNAP benefits is 0.5 to 0.6. The MPCF out of cash is much smaller. These patterns obtain even for households for whom SNAP benefits are economically equivalent to cash because their benefits are below their food spending. Using a semiparametric framework, we reject the hypothesis that households respect the fungibility of money. A model with mental accounting can match the facts.
Publication
American Economic Review
Volume
108
Issue
12
Pages
3493-3540
Date
2018-12
Citation
Hastings, J., & Shapiro, J. M. (2018). How Are SNAP Benefits Spent? Evidence from a Retail Panel. American Economic Review, 108, 3493–3540.
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