TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kaushal,Neeraj
TI  - Do Food Stamps Cause Obesity? Evidence from Immigrant Experience
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12849
PY  - 2007
Y2  - January 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12849
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12849.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Neeraj Kaushal
Columbia University
School of Social Work
1255 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 212/851-2235
Fax: 212/851-2204
E-Mail: nk464@columbia.edu
AB  - I use changes in immigrant eligibility for food stamps under the 1996 federal law and heterogeneous state responses to set up a natural experiment research design to study the effect of food stamps on Body Mass Index (BMI) of adults in immigrant families.  I find that in the post-1996 period food stamps use by foreign-born unmarried mothers with a high school or lower education was 10 percentage points higher in states with substitute programs than in states that implemented the federal ban.  However, this increase in FSP participation was not associated with any statistically significant difference in BMI.  I find that FSP participation was associated a statistically insignificant 0.3 percent increase in BMI among low-educated unmarried mothers.
ER  -