Distributional impacts of food assistance: How SNAP payments to the rural poor affect incomes in the urban core

This paper examines how benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to low‐income households spillover between Portland, Oregon‐metropolitan core and its periphery trade area. The paper studies the impact of the SNAP program on four income classes by comparing the income increases generated by SNAP in 2006 in each income class in each region with a counterfactual scenario in which the taxes that would be needed from taxpayers in the region to support SNAP are treated as income and spent. The analysis shows that overall, SNAP payments net of taxes stimulate the regional economy and are significantly redistributive.