SNAP Access and Economic Security: The Role of Policy Implementation

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest nutrition assistance program in the United States. In 2023, over 40 million people—1 in 8 Americans—received SNAP benefits (USDA, 2024). Still, an estimated 7 to 8 million eligible beneficiaries do not enroll (OMB, 2024). Administrative burdens such as learning about a program, overcoming stigma, and complying with program rules hinder enrollment in safety net programs, including SNAP (Herd & Moynihan, 2018). In this panel, we explore how changes to the application and enrollment process  impact take-up and downstream outcomes. We also explore how behavioral, institutional, and program factors hinder and enable access and vary across populations of interest. 

The first set of papers measure the causal impacts of changes to the SNAP application and enrollment process. The first paper presents findings from three randomized field trials of modifications to the income reporting and verification steps in the application process in two states. While the light-touch interventions did not meaningfully improve program access, the low take-up of benefits even among households who had started applications highlights a need to continue to reduce barriers at this stage in the enrollment process. Using experimental and quasi-random variation in the flexibility of mandatory intake interviews, the second paper finds that households screened out of SNAP due to administrative barriers have increased debt and delinquencies and decreased credit scores. These results highlight the economic importance of implementation design and its role in strengthening (or undermining) the financial protection provided by SNAP. The discussant for these papers is the director of federal equity initiatives at Urban Institute and previous director of MDRC’s Center for Applied Behavioral Science.

The second set of papers focus on SNAP access among students, who face additional barriers to take-up. Shifting away from behavioral barriers to access, the third paper documents how higher education institutions can serve  as frontline organizations to improve food security. Building a unique administrative data set, the authors document how universities in California and across the country operate Basic Need Centers that address food, housing, and financial insecurity among students. The findings suggest that higher education institutions, especially public universities, are an underrecognized but essential part of the safety net infrastructure. The final paper uses a staggered difference-in-differences design to measure the impacts of a recent policy in California that created work exemptions for some students based on their area of study. The author finds that the policy change leads to modest though statistically significant impacts on SNAP participation, but induced much larger effects among graduate students. She explores mechanisms such as eligibility and information about the possibility of receiving benefits to help unpack the impacts that nearly doubled the share of graduate students accessing benefits. The discussant of these papers is a higher education and public administration scholar at the University of Texas at Austin.

Policy Area

• Poverty and Income Policy

Chair

• Chloe N East, University of Colorado - Boulder

Discussants

• Rekha Balu, Urban Institute

• Elizabeth Bell, The University of Texas at Austin

Organizer

• Mary Clair Turner, Georgetown University

Individual Presentations

• Light-touch Changes to Prevent Unfinished Applications: Three Randomized Evaluations on SNAP Income Reporting - Presenting Author: Mary Clair Turner, Georgetown University

• The Financial Consequences of Being Denied Benefit Access - Presenting Author: Tatiana Alexandra Homonoff, New York University

• Higher Education as Safety Net Infrastructure - Presenting Author: Jae Yeon Kim, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Broadening the Safety Net: The Impact of Increased CalFresh Access for University of California Students - Presenting Author: Gabrielle Lohner, University of California, Berkeley