How much does SNAP Matter? SNAP's Effects on Food Security

Abstract: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aims to improve food security of low-income households in the U.S. A new, continuous food security measure called the Probability of Food Security (PFS), which proxies for the official food security measure but is implementable on longer periods, enables the study of SNAP's effects on the intensive margin. Using variations in state-level SNAP administrative policies as an instrument for individual SNAP participation, I find that SNAP does not have significant effects on estimated food security on average, both on the entire population and low-income population whom I defined as income is below 130\% of poverty line at least once during the study period. I find SNAP has stronger positive effects on those whose estimated food security status is in the middle of the distribution, but has no significant effects in the tails of the distribution.