The Effect of the Social Safety Net on Food Security

• In Event: State-Level Policymaking and Hardship among Families with Children

Abstract

By providing resources to low-income families with children and reducing household financial stress, the social safety net has the potential to reduce food insecurity and improve nutrition. But there are gaps in who is served by the safety net, and barriers hindering its ability to address inequities in food hardship. This project estimates the causal impact of the U.S. social safety net on food insecurity among families with children from 2007 to 2022. The research design uses a simulated eligibility approach to characterize the generosity of the safety net across states, years, and demographic groups. It then uses two-way fixed effects regression analysis to evaluate the causal impact of safety net generosity on food security and related outcomes. We characterize the eligibility and benefit rules for the major cash transfer, refundable tax credit, and food safety net programs across the fifty states and D.C. in each year, accounting for important federal and state interactions in eligibility and benefit levels across programs. We then use the substantial variation in the safety net across states, over time, and across different family types to answer three questions: 1) How much does safety net package generosity reduce food insecurity for families with children? 2) How does the effectiveness of the safety net in reducing food insecurity depend on whether the support comes in the form of cash assistance or food? 3) How do these answers differ for sub-populations of families with less equitable access to nutrition, such as non-citizens?

We present results for four samples: 1) citizen-only low-income households, 2) low-income households of all legal statuses, 3) citizen-only households at all income levels, and 4) households of all legal statuses and incomes. We find that the effects of benefit generosity on food insecurity are strongest among citizen-only low-income households: an additional $1,000 in potential cash or food benefits reduces the incidence of food insecurity by 1 percentage point on a base of 31 percent. When disaggregating cash and food benefits, we find a $1000 increase in potential food benefits reduces food insecurity by 2.1 percentage points, while the same value of cash benefits has no significant effects. We do not observe significant effects for the other samples included in Table 1.

We do not observe any statistically significant subgroup differences for combined cash and food assistance. Effects of food assistance availability significantly differ by marital status and highest household education level: married households experience greater reductions than unmarried ones, and households with at least a high school education see larger decreases than those with less education.

Our findings suggest that safety net benefits reduce food insecurity, particularly for citizen-only low-income households, with food assistance programs demonstrating more pronounced effects than cash assistance. Access barriers for certain subgroups such as noncitizens may limit the overall effectiveness of safety net programs.

Authors

• Lucie G. Schmidt, Smith College
  Presenting Author

• Lara D. Shore-Sheppard, Williams College
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Tara Elizabeth Watson, Brookings Institution
  Non-Presenting Co-Author