Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Recent research from behavioral economics emphasizes that seemingly trivial aspects of the design of government programs can lead to unexpected inefficiencies. For example, roughly half of recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) successfully complete the annual recertification process; however, a large fraction successfully reapply for the program within the following months, suggesting that a significant number of (likely) eligible recipients fail recertification. This paper examines the effect of one component of the SNAP recertification process: the initial recertification interview date. While recipients may reschedule their interview for any date, we find that those randomly assigned to an interview date at the beginning of the recertification month are 9 percentage points more likely to successfully recertify – a 15 percent increase. Additionally, we find that recipients assigned to a late interview date are 7 percentage points more likely to “churn”, i.e., fail to recertify, but reapply successfully within the following month and 2 percentage points more likely to be discontinued from the program for 90 days or more.