The economics and nutritional impacts of food assistance policies and programs

Lentz, Erin; Barrett, Chris

doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.06.011

Cited by 60 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 77 publications

(99 reference statements)

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“…Most of the policy research in economics and public health treats policy as the independent variable when evaluating or estimating it effects in relation to a certain objective. Examples of such studies include Lentz and Barrett's (2013) comparison of the economics and nutritional impacts of different kinds of food assistance policies, the WHO's (2016) meta-analysis of the health effects of tax-based food policy interventions. Such assessments would be much helped by greater conceptual precision about the nature and scope of food policy interventions, as well as by systematically mapping and tracking these interventions across contexts and over time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming the dependent variable problem in studying food policy

Candel

Daugbjerg

2019

Food Sec.

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The development of a comparative food policy research agenda has been hampered by the dependent variable problem of how to delineate the policy field. Through a concise literature review, we show that the existing literature has conceptualised food policy as policy outputs, institutional orders, or discursive constructs. Focusing on the policy outputs, we define food policy as a set of policy outputs adopted to address one or more food system activities (production, processing and packaging, distribution and retailing, and consumption) with the explicit aim of affecting food system outcomes in a desired direction. The paper develops a heuristic encompassing four dimensions along which food policy outputs may differ: (i) policy scope, (ii) targeting of policy efforts, (iii) type of policy instruments applied and how these are calibrated, and (iv) integration of the various components of the policy complex. These four dimensions can be applied to characterise individual food policies and compare across countries and time. Comparing and tracking the development of food policy along these dimensions would allow for addressing follow-up questions about impacts and what explains policy change. Keywords Food policy. Comparative research. Dependent variable problem. Public policy. Food system Highlights • Comparative food policy research has been hampered by a dependent variable problem • We suggest that this problem can be overcome by focusing on policy outputs • We propose a heuristic that encompasses four dimensions along which outputs differ • These dimensions include: scope, targeting, substantiality and integration • This approach can be used to compare food policies across contexts and over time * Jeroen Candel

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming the dependent variable problem in studying food policy

Candel

Daugbjerg

2019

Food Sec.

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“…1 While shoppers still must enter the store to use their SNAP benefits for curb-side pick-up orders, they still enjoy the ease of shopping from home and an even greater chance to reduce stigma they may perceive from other shoppers. A high return on investment for food assistance programs such as WIC (Lentz and Barrett 2013) provides compelling evidence that states consider following suit.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From paper to plastic: Understanding the impact of eWIC on WIC recipient behavior

et al. 2019

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“…Yet markets send the marginal unit of food to well-fed, or overfed, people for whom its value is miniscule if not negative. This happens because undernourished people tend to have little purchasing power [168]. If they had sufficient money, they would be able to buy sufficient food.…”

Section: Food Markets Are Inefficientmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Case for Studying Non-Market Food Systems

Bliss

2019

Sustainability

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Markets dominate the world’s food systems. Today’s food systems fail to realize the normative foundations of ecological economics: justice, sustainability, efficiency, and value pluralism. Drawing on empirical and theoretical literature from diverse intellectual traditions, I argue that markets, as an institution for governing food systems, hinder the realization of these objectives. Markets allocate food toward money, not hunger. They encourage shifting costs on others, including nonhuman nature. They rarely signal unsustainability, and in many ways cause it. They do not resemble the efficient markets of economic theory. They organize food systems according to exchange value at the expense of all other social, cultural, spiritual, moral, and environmental values. I argue that food systems can approach the objectives of ecological economics roughly to the degree that they subordinate market mechanisms to social institutions that embody those values. But such “embedding” processes, whether through creating state policy or alternative markets, face steep barriers and can only partially remedy food markets’ inherent shortcomings. Thus, ecological economists should also study, promote, and theorize non-market food systems.

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The economics and nutritional impacts of food assistance policies and programs

Cited by 60 publications

References 77 publications

Overcoming the dependent variable problem in studying food policy

Overcoming the dependent variable problem in studying food policy

From paper to plastic: Understanding the impact of eWIC on WIC recipient behavior

The Case for Studying Non-Market Food Systems

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