The Effects of Lump-Sum Food Benefits During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Spending, Hardship, and Health (WP-24-35)
Lauren Bauer, Krista Ruffini, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
This paper examines how providing families with lump-sum in-kind assistance during the pandemic affected food hardship, economic well-being, and maternal health. The researchers study the introduction of a new program, P-EBT, that provided grocery vouchers worth approximately $300 per student during spring and summer 2020. Using cross-state variation in program timing, they find that families spent $18-42 per student per week in the 6 weeks after benefit receipt. Household food insufficiency and children’s food insecurity among low-income families declined by 27-49% in the month following receipt, and maternal mental health improved by 0.9 standard deviation.
This study is published in the Journal of Public Economics.