How Much Does the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Reduce Food Insecurity?
使用工具变量法控制选择偏差，估计美国补充营养援助计划（SNAP）对减少食品不安全的效果，发现领取SNAP福利使食品不安全概率降低约30%，严重食品不安全概率降低20%。
Nearly 15% of all U.S. households and 40% of near‐poor households were food insecure in 2009. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the cornerstone of federal food assistance programs and serves as the first line of defense against food‐related hardship. This paper measures the effectiveness of SNAP in reducing food insecurity using an instrumental variables approach to control for selection. Our results suggest that receipt of SNAP benefits reduces the likelihood of being food insecure by roughly 30% and reduces the likelihood of being very food insecure by 20%.