ArticleThe Review of economic studies2024
Is the Social Safety Net a Long-Term Investment? Large-Scale Evidence From the Food Stamps Program.
Article in The Review of economic studies, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of income support interventions on children's long-term health trajectories: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- The impact of income-support interventions on life course risk factors and health outcomes during childhood: a systematic review in high income countries.BMC public health · 2023Pooled it
- Family Safety Nets and Child Outcomes of Families Involved with the U.S. Child Welfare System.Journal of social service research · 2026Article
- Does better school adaptability lead to healthier eating behaviors?BMC public health · 2026Article
- Introducing theJournal of marriage and the family · 2026Article
- News media coverage of the U.S. social safety net: themes and gaps from a scoping review.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Long-term Effects of Local Area New Deal Work Relief in Childhood on Late-Life Depression.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- The long-term health effects of welfare reform.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- The safety net and child health and well-being: evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom.Fiscal studies · 2025Article
- Intragenerational and Intergenerational Transmission of Food Insecurity: An Analysis of Black and White Women and Children From the NHLBI Growth and Health Study.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- New Advances on an Old Question: Does Money Matter for Children's Outcomes?Journal of economic literature · 2024Article
- Emergency Allotments in SNAP and Food Hardship Among Households With Children.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- The long-term health effects of childhood exposure to social and economic policies: A scoping review.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Article
- Unconditional Cash Transfers for Families with Children in the U.S.: A Scoping Review.Review of economics of the household · 2024Article
- Understanding Multiprogram Take-Up of Safety Net Programs Among California Families.AJPM focus · 2024Article
- Immigration concerns and social program avoidance: The roles of legal status and family composition among asian and latino communities.Journal of migration and health · 2024Article
- Multigenerational Impacts of Childhood Access to the Safety Net: Early Life Exposure to Medicaid and the Next Generation's Health.The American economic review · 2023Article
- Article
- The Long-term Impact of In-Utero Cigarette Taxes on Adult Prenatal Smoking.American journal of health economics · 2023Article
- The impact of the 2021 Thrifty Food Plan benefit re-evaluation on SNAP participants' short-term food security and health outcomes.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
We use novel, large-scale data on 17.5 million Americans to study how a policy-driven increase in economic resources affects children's long-term outcomes. Using the 2000 Census and 2001-13 American Community Survey linked to the Social Security Administration's NUMIDENT, we leverage the county-level rollout of the Food Stamps program between 1961 and 1975. We find that children with access to greater economic resources before age five have better outcomes as adults. The treatment-on-the-treated effects show a 6% of a standard deviation improvement in human capital, 3% of a standard deviation increase in economic self-sufficiency, 8% of a standard deviation increase in the quality of neighbourhood of residence, a 1.2-year increase in life expectancy, and a 0.5 percentage-point decrease in likelihood of being incarcerated. These estimates suggest that Food Stamps' transfer of resources to families is a highly cost-effective investment in young children, yielding a marginal value of public funds of approximately sixty-two.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.