Do SNAP Recipients Get the Best Prices?

Abstract

We developed an expensiveness index and used the Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey data set to examine empirically whether Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants pay higher prices compared with nonqualifying and qualifying, but nonparticipating, households. Purchasers’ ability to minimize food expenditures has significant effects on the program’s effectiveness and on participants’ food security. Using ordinary least squares and two techniques that control for the endogeneity of SNAP participation, we found no significant effect of SNAP participation on food prices. Moreover, we found that SNAP participants pay, on average, lower prices than do nonparticipants. We conclude by providing suggestions for policy improvements and implications for future research.

Price Consciousness at the Peak of “Impatience”

“…This work also contributes to literature that uses scanner or expenditure diary data to analyze household shopping behaviors. A subset of these papers specifically examine whether low-income households pay more for goods than higher-income households or if they engage in specific price-saving shopping strategies (Beatty 2010;Broda, Leibtag, and Weinstein 2009;Griffith et al 2009;March et al 2020). These studies find that lowincome households acquire goods at lower prices in comparison to their higher-income counterparts.…”