Can access to restaurant meals under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program lead to obesity?

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) makes an exception to its rules, which allows elderly and/or disabled individuals, their spouses, as well as homeless beneficiaries, to buy hot prepared food from restaurants if they live in a state that participates in the Restaurant Meals Program (R...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ayesha Jamal
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press
Series:Agricultural and Resource Economics Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1068280525000048/type/journal_article
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Summary:Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) makes an exception to its rules, which allows elderly and/or disabled individuals, their spouses, as well as homeless beneficiaries, to buy hot prepared food from restaurants if they live in a state that participates in the Restaurant Meals Program (RMP). Using the staggered countywide adoption timeline in California, coupled with a stacked difference-in-differences empirical strategy, I examine the intent-to-treat (ITT) nutritional effects of RMP on the elderly population. Overall, I find no evidence that obesity rates for the elderly are any different in counties with RMP versus those without RMP. I can statistically rule out moderate effects. Additional evidence from some of the early-adopting counties suggests that RMP is associated with a reduction in food insecurity among the elderly.
ISSN:1068-2805
2372-2614