Premium
SNAP and Paycheck Cycles
Author(s) -
Beatty Timothy K. M.,
Bitler Marianne P.,
Cheng Xinzhe Huang,
Werf Cynthia
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/soej.12345
Subject(s) - receipt , snap , supplemental nutrition assistance program , consumption (sociology) , social security , business , government (linguistics) , agriculture , streams , economics , demographic economics , food security , public economics , food insecurity , accounting , geography , market economy , computer network , social science , linguistics , philosophy , computer graphics (images) , archaeology , sociology , computer science
It is well documented that individuals do not spend the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits smoothly over the month after receipt. Rather, recipients spend a disproportionate share of benefits at the beginning of the benefit month. This has costs for recipients and stores. There is also evidence that other income streams, such as Social Security and paychecks, are not spent smoothly. The presence of these other income streams may bias estimates of the effects of this SNAP cycle on consumption for working SNAP beneficiaries and those who receive other government benefits. We use data from United States Department of Agriculture's National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey to explore how the SNAP cycle is affected by accounting for these other income streams. We find suggestive evidence that the cycle is more pronounced for workers who are paid on a weekly or monthly basis, but little evidence that cycles in other income streams mitigate or exacerbate the SNAP cycle.