James Mabli

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation and Child Food Security

OBJECTIVE: This article investigates the association between Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation and child food security by using data from the largest national survey of the food security of SNAP participants to date. METHODS: The analysis used a survey of nearly 3000 households with children and a quasi-experimental research design that consisted of 2 sets of comparisons. Using a cross-sectional sample, we compared information collected from SNAP households within days of program entry with information collected from a contemporaneous sample of SNAP households that had participated for ∼6 months. Next, by using a longitudinal sample, we compared baseline information collected from new-entrant SNAP households with information from those same households 6 months later. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to estimate associations between SNAP and child food security. RESULTS: SNAP participation was associated with an approximately one-third decrease in the odds of children being food insecure in both samples. In the cross-sectional analysis only, SNAP was also associated with a decrease in the odds of children experiencing severe food insecurity (designated very low food security). Findings were qualitatively robust to different empirical specifications. CONCLUSIONS: After controlling for other possible confounders, we found children in households that had participated in SNAP for 6 months experienced improvements in food security. On the basis of these findings, we conclude SNAP serves a vital role in improving the health and well-being of low-income children by increasing food security. Future research is needed to determine whether specific groups of children experience differential improvements in food security.

Characterizing Food Access in America: Considering the Role of Emergency Food Pantries in Areas without Supermarkets

This study provides a more comprehensive depiction of the environment in which low-income households and other vulnerable populations acquire and purchase food by considering access to emergency food pantries in areas lacking supermarkets. The locations of food pantries were mapped against the map of supermarkets in 47 states and the District of Columbia to identify local areas without supermarkets and the percentage of these areas that have a pantry. Local area population characteristics were used to define subgroups of areas based on poverty level and socioeconomic status of households. The study found that food pantries help to address food access limitations in a sizable percentage of area without supermarkets. About one quarter of census tracts with no supermarkets were found to have at least one food pantry. When considering only high-poverty tracts, 40% of areas without a supermarket had a pantry. The study also found that among areas without supermarkets, pantries tend to be located in areas with higher rates of poverty and lower socioeconomic status. These findings highlight the important role that pantries play in ensuring access to food for low-income American families and also underscore the importance of taking these programs into account when examining the extent of food access limitations.

The Food Access Environment and Food Purchase Behavior of SNAP Households

This study describes the food access environment and food purchase behavior of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households using data from the SNAP Food Security Survey, the largest and most recent national survey of SNAP participants to date. To characterize households’ geographic access to food, street addresses of households and retailers were used to calculate the distances to stores and numbers of retailers in the area. Food purchase behavior was described by the type of store from which respondents purchased most of their groceries, the reasons why they preferred to shop there, typical mode of transportation, and typical travel time and distance to the store. The study found that at least half of SNAP participants have access to one or more supermarkets within close range of their household and do the majority of their food shopping at a supermarket (less than 1% purchase most of their groceries at a convenience store). SNAP households typically bypass nearby stores to use stores farther from home because they offer low prices or sales. With 1 in 7 Americans currently participating in SNAP, these findings can help policymakers understand the prevalence and extent of access limitations among SNAP households and how they acquire healthy food.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation and Local Program Outreach and Eligibility Services

Program outreach activities are integral components of social welfare programs, but the relationship between availability of outreach services and households’ program participation has not been examined due to lack of data on outreach efforts. This study uses a unique, nationally representative, matched household-agency data set of more than 21,000 households from 2009 to examine relationships between household participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and outreach and eligibility services offered by local agencies. When agencies provide applications to clients of emergency food pantries and submit their applications to SNAP administrative offices, the probability of household participation in SNAP increases 5–6 percentage points.

Household Search or Individual Search: Does It Matter?

Most labor market search models ignore the fact that decisions are often made at the household level. We fill this gap by developing and estimating a household search model with on-the-job search and labor supply. We find that ignoring the household as a decision-making unit has relevant empirical consequences. In estimation, the individual search model implies gender wage offer differentials almost twice as large as the household search model. In the application, the individual search model implies female lifetime inequality 30% lower than the household search model. Labor market policy effects on lifetime inequality are also sensitive to the specification.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation and Emergency Food Pantry Use

Objective To determine the association between Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation and pantry use. Design A pretest–posttest design that compared pantry use at program enrollment and after 6 months of participation while controlling for household, economic, and geographic characteristics. Setting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Food Security Survey: a national telephone survey of SNAP new‐entrant households conducted in 2011–2012. Participants A total of 3,191 households that completed baseline interviews and were still participating in SNAP approximately 6 months later. Main Outcome Measure Received emergency food from pantries in the past 30 days. Analysis Logistic regression analysis of pantry use with SNAP participation and time‐varying household characteristics as independent variables. Statistical significance was assessed using t tests. The authors applied a Bonferroni adjustment to account for multiple comparisons performed. Results Participating in SNAP for 6 months was associated with a decrease in pantry use by 5.2 percentage points (P < .001), representing a 24% reduction (from 21.8% to 16.6%). Conclusions and Implications Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit allotments are sufficient for some households, but 76% of SNAP households that enter the program while using pantries continue to do so about 6 months later, which underscores the need to assess the adequacy of SNAP benefit allotments in ensuring access to sufficient food for a healthy, active life.

Household Lifetime Inequality Estimates in the U.S. Labor Market

Abstract This paper provides household lifetime inequality indexes derived from representative U.S. labor market data. We obtain this result by using estimates of the household search model proposed by Flabbi and Mabli (2012). Inequality indexes computed on the benchmark model shows that inequality in utility values is substantially different from inequality in earnings and wages and that inequality at the cross-sectional level is significantly different from inequality at the lifetime level. Both results deliver original policy implications that would have not been captured without using our approach. In particular, we find that a counterfactual policy experiment consisting in a mean-preserving spread of the wage offers distributions increases lifetime inequality in wages and earnings but not in utility. When comparing inequality at the individual level between men and women, we find inequality in wages and earnings to be higher for husbands than wives but inequality in utility to be higher for wives. A counterfactual decomposition shows that the job offers parameters are the main source of the gender differential.