Early Life Exposure to Food Stamps and the Next Generation’s Health

• In Event: New Research on Childhood Exposure to the Safety Net

Abstract

This paper examines the intergenerational impacts of the U.S. Food Stamp Program (FSP) by investigating how women’s exposure to FSP during early life affects the health outcomes of their children. Using natality data from 1990 to 2020 and exploiting quasi-experimental variation in the staggered rollout of FSP between 1961 and 1975, we implement an interaction-weighted difference-in-differences framework to estimate the effects of maternal early-life exposure on next-generation birth outcomes. The results indicate that early-life access to FSP improved infant health in the next generation, particularly among Black mothers, for whom exposure increased birth weight by 17.3 grams and reduced low birth weight incidence by 4.4%. In contrast, we find no statistically significant effects for White mothers.

We explore several mechanisms and find that maternal FSP exposure is associated with improved educational attainment, reduced teenage and advanced-age pregnancies, healthier prenatal behaviors, and greater utilization of prenatal care. These mediating pathways underscore how early nutritional investments can yield lasting benefits across generations.

Our findings have several key policy implications. First, they highlight that nutritional assistance programs like FSP generate returns well beyond their immediate target population, producing long-term human capital improvements that cascade across generations. Second, these benefits are concentrated among disadvantaged groups, suggesting that programs like SNAP (formerly FSP) play a critical role in narrowing racial health disparities and supporting social mobility. Third, the results caution against efforts to scale back SNAP benefits or tighten eligibility requirements, as doing so may undermine multigenerational gains. Finally, we estimate a social return of approximately 12.3% in future earnings per dollar spent on FSP, supporting its classification as a long-term public investment with intergenerational returns. These findings offer compelling evidence that investing in childhood nutrition is not only a moral imperative but also sound economic policy.

 

Author

• Nahid Tavassoli, Austin Peay State University
  Presenting Author