Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

We investigate generational persistence in the impacts of early life economic resources. We focus on the introduction of the Food Stamp Program, which was adopted across counties in different years between 1961 and 1975. We merge restricted access survey (Census, ACS) and administrative (Vital Statistics birth records) data sets that contains information on parents’ county of residence in early childhood with existing data on the timing of county program adoption. We replicate previous findings that Food Stamps have a positive effect on both short and long-run outcomes for cohorts exposed to the program in utero and in early childhood. Extending the analysis of the program to future generations indicates the return on investment may be substantially larger than suggested by evaluations of the program that focus only on treated cohorts.