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Retailer Proximity and Nutrition Program Redemptions: Evidence From the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer For Children Program
Author(s) -
Furey Jane,
Klerman Jacob Alex,
Grindal Todd
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
applied economic perspectives and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.4
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 2040-5804
pISSN - 2040-5790
DOI - 10.1093/aepp/ppy003
Subject(s) - business , transfer (computing) , environmental health , marketing , medicine , parallel computing , computer science
Although nearly all Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are redeemed, a moderate share of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) benefits go unredeemed. Some hypothesize that the redemption rate differences are due to the lower density of WIC‐authorized retailers. For the 2012 Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children sites, this paper finds no consistent evidence of a relationship between redemption rates and retailer proximity. In fact, households often travel past the closest participating retailer to redeem their benefits. These findings are consistent with recent “food deserts” literature, which suggests that correlations between retailer environment and nutritional outcomes are not causal. Rather, it appears that differences in redemption rates may be related to the restrictions on what foods can be redeemed in what form with WIC.