Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: SNAP and the Economy

(Poverty and Income Policy)

This panel broadly examines the interaction of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the economy. The papers in this panel focus, in particular, on SNAP in the post-recessionary period. One of the most important measures taken to mitigate the effect of the recession on low-income households’ food security was an across-the-board, but temporary, increase in SNAP benefits. Following the recession, that provision expired, and benefits returned to their previous levels. Employing different methodological approaches, two of the papers in this panel explore the effects of the sunsetting of the SNAP benefit increase under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Another paper estimates the effect of the program on recipients’ labor supply, relying on state-level policy variation to identify these effects. The final paper in this panel looks at the relationship between local economic conditions in various industries and SNAP spell lengths using longitudinal administrative records on SNAP receipt. Each paper in this panel yields important implications for policy. The first two papers, which offer different perspectives on the sunsetting of the ARRA SNAP benefit increase, exploit a quasi-natural experiment to shed light on the relationship between food security and SNAP benefit level. This research points to the harm done to households’ food security by benefit cuts as well as to the potential for (permanent) benefit increases to improve food security. The labor supply effect of SNAP has taken on greater salience as more and more states allow their waivers on time limits for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) to lapse and even more far-reaching work restrictions on recipients are being mooted (e.g., the proposed Southerland amendment to the last Farm Bill). The paper in this panel addressing the labor supply effects of SNAP provides much-needed updated estimates that reflect current policy and economic conditions. Related to debate on ABAWD waiver policy, and further work restrictions on program receipt, is whether SNAP recipients are responsive to labor demand conditions. This paper also highlights the importance of considering local as well as industry-specific labor market conditions, as only a limited segment of the labor market may actually be relevant for SNAP recipients, or those at-risk for SNAP receipt.