Full Citation
Title: Is the Social Safety Net a Long-Term Investment? Large-Scale Evidence from the Food Stamps Program
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2019
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Abstract: We use novel large-scale data on 43 million Americans from the 2000 Census and the 2001 to 2013 American Communities Survey linked to the Social Security Administration's NUMIDENT to study how a policy-driven increase in economic resources for families affects children's long-term outcomes. Using variation from the county-level roll-out of the Food Stamps program between 1961 and 1975, we find that children with access to greater economic resources before age five experienced an increase of 6 percent of a standard deviation in their adult human capital, 3 percent of a standard deviation in their adult economic self-sufficiency, 8 percent of a standard deviation in the quality of their adult neighborhoods, 0.4 percentage point increase in longevity, and a 0.5 percentage point decrease in likelihood of being incarcerated. provided exceptional assistance in translating string names in the SSA's NUMIDENT file into GNIS codes. We also thank Ariel Binder, Chris Campos, Dorian Carloni, Grant Graziani, Krista Ruffini, Bryan Stuart, and Brenden Timpe for excellent research assistance and Clint Carter for the many hours spent helping us disclose these results. A pre-analysis plan for this project can be found at https://osf.io/t6vsz.
Url: https://inequality.hks.harvard.edu/files/inequality/files/hoynes19.pdf
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Authors: Bailey, Martha J; Hoynes, Hilary; Rossin-Slater, Maya; Walker, Reed
Publisher: University of Michigan
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other, Poverty and Welfare
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