Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The consequences of food insecurity—defined as limited or uncertain access to adequate food because of a lack of economic resources for food—are well established (Gundersen, Kreider and Pepper, 2011). As a result, food insecurity is quickly becoming a major public health concern in the United States. In 2017, 11. 8 percent (40.0 million individuals living in 15.0 million households) of all households were food insecure (Coleman-Jensen et al., 2018).

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), over half (62.0 percent) of all food-insecure households had at least one employed member in 2017. Household labor supply plays an important role in determining the household’s food insecurity, providing additional economic resources for food. At the national level food insecurity prevalence estimates generally follow trends in the unemployment rate (Nord, Coleman-Jensen and Gregory, 2014; Rabbitt, Smith and Coleman-Jensen, 2016). Labor supply at the household level is also related to food insecurity. Studies also show that increasing the household’s labor supply leads to reductions in food insecurity (e.g., Hamersma and Kim, 2016), and minimum wage polices explain differences in state-level rates of food insecurity (Bartfeld and Men, 2017).

Alternatively, food insecurity has the potential to impact households’ labor market outcomes. Food insecurity is known to be associated with negative health outcomes, such as poor general health (Cook et al., 2006), higher levels of depression (Whitaker et al., 2006), higher levels of chronic disease (Seligman et al., 2009), and lower scores on physical and mental health exams (Stuff et al., 2004), which may impact households productivity. Under neoclassical economic theory, productivity is based on the firm’s production function and measures output per hour of labor. While prior studies have established that there are productivity losses associated with poor health (e.g., Zhang, Bansback and Anis, 2011), no studies have attempted to estimate the productivity losses associated with food insecurity.

In this study, we are the first to estimate the labor market productivity losses associated with food insecurity among U.S. households. Using data from the 2001-2017 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS), merged with the CPS Outgoing Rotation Groups (ORG), we estimate the total, direct, and indirect (operating through health) effects of food insecurity among the household’s adult members within the past 30 days on measures of labor market productivity during the previous week, as measured by absenteeism, for the household. After establishing baseline correlations between the household’s health, food insecurity, and their labor market productivity, we examine the mitigating effects on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly the Food Stamp Program) benefit receipt among a subsample of low-income households on their health, food insecurity, and labor market productivity.

Our preliminary findings reaffirm findings from prior studies that illness is associated with lower labor market productivity, and expand our understanding of the economic burden of food insecurity by being the first study to confirm the presence of positively signed direct and indirect effects of food insecurity on measures of absenteeism.