I use changes in immigrant eligibility for food stamps under the 1996 federal law and heterogeneous state responses to set up a natural experiment research design to study the effect of food stamps on Body Mass Index (BMI) of adults in immigrant families. I find that in the post-1996 period food...

Economists have strong theoretical predictions about how in-kind transfer programs – such as providing vouchers for food – impact consumption. Despite the prominence of the theory, there has been little empirical work documenting actual responses to in-kind transfers. In this work, we...

Food Stamps (FS) and cash assistance were reformed in 1996 and later to emphasize work as a route out of poverty. When employment opportunities were plentiful, as they were during the late 1990s, many families were able to transition off program rolls and into jobs. However, when the employment...

Benefit receipt in major household surveys is often underreported. This understatement has major implications for our understanding of the economic circumstances of disadvantaged populations and the distributional effects of government programs. This paper examines underreporting of food stamps...