Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Providing a financial incentive for low-income individuals to purchase healthy foods is an emerging strategy to improve public health and ease the burden of chronic disease.

Incentive programs and policies have only recently been studied “on-the-ground”, thus the science-based analysis of these programs is in its infancy. There have been seven articles published on the issue from October 1st through December 20^th 2017, just one illustration of the budding knowledge base. The issue is immediately relevant to policy decision makers as well. The 2014 Farm Bill established the first federal incentive program available nationwide through the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) program, which is up for renewal this coming September. Since FINI was passed, 15 different states and localities have introduced and/or passed legislation, or authorized administrative support for incentive programs; there are five more already known to be considering incentive policies in the 2018 legislative calendar.

After reviewing and summarizing the currently available published literature on financial incentives related to SNAP or other similar research that may be germane to SNAP-based incentives, I believe a poster presentation would be an apt forum to present an early-stage, scientifically-backed policy analysis. This poster will synthesize the key findings from the literature, articulate how the findings relate to better incentives policy, and also propose policy-relevant future research questions and ideas.

This report aims to assist both researchers and policy decision makers at the local, state, and federal levels in forming an evidence-based policy on the subject.