Food For The Hungry: The Impact of Increased SNAP Payouts on Hunger

Abstract

In 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This legislation provided an increase in Supplemental Food Assistance Program (SNAP) payouts of 15%, on average. Employing the Linear Probability, Logit and Ordered Logit Difference-in-Difference models, I estimate the impact of this payout increase on reported hunger. I use data from the Food Security Supplement of the Current Population Survey. The results show that increases in SNAP payouts have reduced the probability of being hungry at all in the previous month. Furthermore, when estimating the impact on the frequency of hunger, I find that those who are likely to report being hungry more often experience larger reductions in their probability of being hungry due to increases in SNAP payouts. These findings support the effectiveness of increased SNAP payouts during harsh economic times and further help identify the level of reported hunger for which increasing payouts is more significant.