Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Monthly government transfer programs produce cycles of consumption that track benefit receipt, creating periods in which many households experience food insecurity. In this paper, we exploit state-level variation in the staggered timing of nutritional assistance benefit issuance across households to analyze how this monthly cyclicality in food availability affects academic achievement. Using individual-level College Board data on SAT scores and college attendance for low-income high school students, we find that taking a high-stakes college admissions exam in the last two weeks of the SNAP benefit cycle reduces test scores and lowers the probability of attending a 4-year college.