Replication data for: How Are SNAP Benefits Spent? Evidence from a Retail Panel
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We use a novel retail panel with detailed transaction records to study the effect of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on house-hold spending. We use administrative data to motivate three approaches to causal inference. The marginal propensity to consume SNAP-eligible food (MPCF) out of SNAP benefits is 0.5 to 0.6. The MPCF out of cash is much smaller. These patterns obtain even for households for whom SNAP benefits are economically equivalent to cash because their benefits are below their food spending. Using a semiparametric framework, we reject the hypothesis that households respect the fungibility of money. A model with mental accounting can match the facts.
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Publication Details
Subfield
General Economics, Econometrics and Finance
Field
Economics, Econometrics and Finance
Domain
Social Sciences
Confidence Score
43%
Source
Scholar Data Model