Grant Description:
Sara Hamersma, Ph.D., Syracuse University Department of Public Administration and International Affairs and Warren Brown, Ph.D., Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is one of the most broadly-targeted anti-poverty programs in the U.S. It is possible for an individual to be a SNAP participant across the life course, beginning as a child and continuing to late in life. However, the availability of food assistance may play a distinct role in labor market decisions at different points in the life cycle. In early adulthood, SNAP may play a role in improving the feasibility of time-intensive educational investments by limiting the hours of work needed for meeting basic needs. In mid-life, SNAP may affect decisions about labor-leisure tradeoffs in the presence of children. Later in life, access to SNAP may play a role in the timing of retirement. In this project, we explore some of these possibilities using a unique matched data set consisting of New York State SNAP administrative data linked to both the Survey (ACS). These data will give us the opportunity to explore SNAP access and participation patterns and, ultimately, their relationship to labor market decisions at different points in the life course. This work will also improve the research community’s understanding of the nature of undereporting of SNAP participation in survey data, with a particular emphasis on whether certain age groups are more reliable in their survey reporting than others.