Impact of USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on Rural and Urban Economies in the Aftermath of the Great Recession

This report traces the impacts of USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit outlays on the rural and urban economies during the post-recession years 2009–14. The macroeconomic stimulus effects of the expenditures of SNAP benefit outlays generated larger economic impacts in the urban economy than the rural economy, when measured in total dollars and numbers of jobs. However, when measured as shares of total output, income, and employment, SNAP’s stimulus effects generated larger impacts in the rural economy. These larger rural impacts were attributed to two factors: (1) The farm and food processing sectors represented larger shares of the rural economic base than of the urban industrial base; and (2) urban SNAP expenditures generated large spillover impacts in the rural economy