Food insecurity, timing of SNAP disbursement and crime incidence in the United States
Presented by:
Licheng Xu
Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
12:00 pm-1:30 pm
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The contribution of food assistance programs to food security is well documented in the literature. However, the indirect benefit of these programs, such as crime control, is yet understudied. Taking the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as an example, this study first establishes a causal chain from the timing of food assistance issuance to crime incidence via the prevalence of food insecurity. Evidence from all counties in the U.S. between 2009 and 2017 suggests that the average food insecurity rate is 0.7-0.8 percentage point (roughly 5 percent) lower when the monthly benefit issuance period is stretched for 10 additional calendar days, which in turn leads to an average decline of approximately 13 crime incidents at the county level each year. Then, using an extensive incident-based crime dataset, I estimate the reduced-form effect of SNAP benefit disbursement on crime incidence. Evidence from reporting agencies in 36 states during 2000-2017 suggests a significantly lower monthly crime count of robbery, burglary, and property destruction when SNAP benefit issuance to recipient households is staggered across 15 to 21 days. Additionally, a disbursement schedule that starts from the first day of a month or consists of consecutive calendar days is likely to be associated with more crimes. These results point to a moderately dispersed SNAP disbursement schedule, which does not collide with regular paycheck days.
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