Long-Run Impacts of Childhood Access to the Safety Net

Abstract

A growing economics literature establishes a causal link between in utero shocks and health and human capital in adulthood. Most studies rely on extreme negative shocks such as famine and pandemics. We are the first to examine the impact of a positive and policy-driven change in economic resources available in utero and during childhood. In particular, we focus on the introduction of a key element of the U.S. safety net, the Food Stamp Program, which was rolled out across counties in the U.S. between 1961 and 1975. We use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to assemble unique data linking family background and county of residence in early childhood to adult health and economic outcomes. The identification comes from variation across counties and over birth cohorts in exposure to the food stamp program. Our findings indicate that the food stamp program has effects decades after initial exposure. Specifically, access to food stamps in childhood leads to a significant reduction in the incidence of "metabolic syndrome" (obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes) and, for women, an increase in economic self-sufficiency. Overall, our results suggest substantial internal and external benefits of the safety net that have not previously been quantified.

Gates, Gaps, and Intergenerational Mobility: The Importance of an Even Start

“…However, children with poor neonatal health born to highly educated families perform much better in the longer run than do those with good neonatal health born to poorly educated families, suggesting that patterns of nurture and early child development can at least partially overcome poor health at birth. Their fi ndings are very much in keeping with the literature on the positive relationship between household income and health status in childhood and adulthood (Hoynes et al 2012 ;Dahl and Lochner 2012 ) and are consistent with the notion that parental inputs and neonatal health are complements rather than substitutes, a " dynamic complementarity " that we return to below.…”

A Life Course Perspective on Gender Differences in Cognitive Functioning in India

“…Research from high-income countries shows that women make large gains in health, income and cognition when living standards improve and they have better access to food, education, employment opportunities and healthcare (Hoynes et al, 2012;Flynn, 2012). A recent cross-country comparison of gender differences in cognition over time indicate that cognitive performance of the population increased in Northern Europe as these countries grew richer.…”

“…3 Paradoxically, years of stable economic growth have been accompanied by a deterioration in some social development indicators. For instance, despite averaging an annual GDP growth rate of 6% since 1980 and about 10% for many years in the last decade, India's sex ratio (number of girls for every 1000 boys in the 0-6 age range, for example) has declined substantially 1 See Van den Berg et al, 2006;Paxson and Schady, 2007;Zhang et al, 2008;Case and Paxson, 2009;Hoynes et al, between 1990 and 2005 (Jha et al, 2011). There is also evidence of persistent underinvestment in girls in terms of nutrition, health care and education, all of which are crucial factors for healthy cognitive functioning over the life-cycle.…”

The Long-run Effects of Teacher Collective Bargaining

“…We also control for average state EITC rates between the ages of 6 and 18 for each cohort, as Michelmore (2013) shows that these policies positively affect educational attainment. 25 Finally, Hoynes, Schanzenbach and Almond (2016) demonstrate that exposure to the food stamp program when young has long-run effects on health and economic outcomes. We use the population-weighted average proportion of counties eligible for food stamps when each birth cohort-state of birth group was between 6 and 18.…”