Welfare Implications of Increased Retailer Participation in SNAP
Governments often rely on private vendors to deliver in-kind benefits, yet little is known about how vendor participation affects markets and welfare. We study a sharp rise in retailer participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the Great Recession, driven largely by non-grocer formats. Linking administrative, retail, and household data, we find that sales increased 6% and variety 4% at adopting stores, with no price effects and only modest spillovers to local competitors. A revealed-preference framework shows that, while consumers value adoption at some chains, overall welfare gains for SNAP households were modest-equivalent to a 1.8% reduction in travel costs-with little effect on non-SNAP households.
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Copy CitationAnne T. Byrne, Xiao Dong, Jessie Handbury, Erik James, Katherine Meckel, and Andrés C. Rovira, "Welfare Implications of Increased Retailer Participation in SNAP," NBER Working Paper 34467 (2025), https://doi.org/10.3386/w34467.Download Citation
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