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How Did The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Affect the Material Well‐Being of SNAP Participants? A Distributional Approach

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  • Pourya Valizadeh
  • Travis A Smith

Abstract

Money‐metric welfare, or material well‐being, can be defined by household expenditure. We find that the 2009 ARRA benefit increase improved material well‐being at all expenditure levels, which is interpreted as a first‐order policy improvement. The adverse effects of the 2013 benefit cuts, however, were concentrated among the most disadvantaged SNAP subpopulations. These effects are almost entirely driven by changes in food rather than nonfood spending. The asymmetric shift in the distribution of well‐being speaks to the resource management skills and coping strategies among the low‐income households, especially the most disadvantaged, and calls for improved education on budgeting skills.

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  • Pourya Valizadeh & Travis A Smith, 2020. "How Did The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Affect the Material Well‐Being of SNAP Participants? A Distributional Approach," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(3), pages 455-476, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:apecpp:v:42:y:2020:i:3:p:455-476
    DOI: 10.1093/aepp/ppy039
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    2. David Powell, 2022. "Quantile regression with nonadditive fixed effects," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(5), pages 2675-2691, November.
    3. Mehreen S. Ismail & Michele Ver Ploeg & Virginia Chomitz & Parke Wilde, 2024. "Examining the role of the excess shelter deduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit formula," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(1), pages 300-317, March.

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