Tansel Yilmazer, The Ohio State University, Professor, Consumer Sciences
Lauren Jones, University of Toronto, Associate Professor, Economics
Title: Responses to COVID-19 SNAP Emergency Allotment: How did Families Spend the Money?
Abstract: In response to food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) funded an expansion to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), called the Emergency Allotment (EA). The EA expansion increased every eligible family’s SNAP benefit to the maximum allotment amount. This increase created a discontinuity in benefit amounts at the SNAP eligibility cutoff. Using this discontinuity in benefit amounts, we aim to investigate spending responses for different categories of expenditures. We utilize two data sources: SNAP Quality Control data from October 2019 to September 2020 and NielsenIQ Consumer Panel from January 2019 to December 2020. We consistently find evidence of increases in expenditures on food and non-food items associated with receipt of SNAP-EA benefits. Among food items, we find evidence of increases in deli products, dairy products, and sugar-sweetened beverages and no evidence of changes in alcohol and tobacco. Among non-food items, we find large evidence of increases in non-food grocery, which include household cleaning items and toilet paper.
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