Thrifty Food Plan Price Index, SNAP Purchasing Power, and Participation

50 Pages Posted: 23 Sep 2020 Last revised: 5 Jan 2022

See all articles by Qingxiao Li

Qingxiao Li

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge - Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness; University of Minnesota - St. Paul - Department of Applied Economics

Metin Çakır

University of Minnesota - St. Paul - Department of Applied Economics

Date Written: September 23, 2021

Abstract

This paper estimates the state-level spatial and temporal differences in the SNAP purchasing power by constructing panel price indices for the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP). We construct the TFP index using retail scanner data for the period 2006–2016. We find that the range of SNAP purchasing power for a household of four is between 5 and 9 percent across the states and that the regional disparities are persistent during the study period. Subsequently, we examine the extent to which the SNAP purchasing power affects program participation. Our results show that a ten percent increase in the real SNAP benefits leads to a 0.9 percentage point increase in the SNAP caseload per capita and an 8.1 percentage point increase in the SNAP caseload per eligible individual. We show that these effects would be overlooked if the TFP index is not corrected for the expenditure and outlet bias.

Keywords: SNAP purchasing power, food and nutrition policy, index number, panel price indices, SNAP participation.

JEL Classification: Q18, I38, C43, E31.

Suggested Citation

Li, Qingxiao and Çakır, Metin, Thrifty Food Plan Price Index, SNAP Purchasing Power, and Participation (September 23, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3669951 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3669951

Qingxiao Li (Contact Author)

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge - Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness ( email )

101 Agricultural Administration Building
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5604
United States

University of Minnesota - St. Paul - Department of Applied Economics ( email )

1994 Bufford Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55108
United States

Metin Çakır

University of Minnesota - St. Paul - Department of Applied Economics ( email )

1994 Bufford Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55108
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
133
Abstract Views
691
Rank
387,988
PlumX Metrics