The food stamp program, serving 24 million persons in 2004 at a cost of $27 billion, is one of the
most important income support programs in the United States. Despite this prominence, it has
been relatively understudied as it has been difficult for researchers to isolate the causal impact of
the Food Stamp Program on food spending, nutritional intake, labor supply and other outcomes.
Because the program is national, there is not variation in program parameters (such as stark
differences in state benefit levels or eligibility) that are typically exploited by researchers to
measure program impacts. In this work, we leverage previously underutilized variation across
counties in the date they originally implemented their Food Stamp Program in the 1960s and
early 1970s. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the 1960, 1970 and 1980
Decennial Census, we employ difference-in-difference methods to estimate the impact of
program availability on food spending, family income, labor supply, and health. Using the
PSID, we find that that the introduction of food stamps leads to decreases in out of pocket food
expenses, decreases in the propensity to eat out, and overall increases in food consumption. The
results are consistent with theoretical predictions but are not precisely estimated. Results from
the Census and PSID show no evidence of a significant work disincentive from introduction of
food stamps.