American Economic Journal: Economic Policy · 2022 · Jacob S. Goldin、Tatiana Alexandra Homonoff、Katherine Meckel
中文摘要
许多安全网项目以每月一次性总额支付的形式发放福利。我们考察补充营养援助计划（SNAP）福利发放时点如何影响食品购买以及转移支付的归宿。利用来自大样本食品杂货店的扫描数据，以及各州和不同时期 SNAP 发放时间表的差异，我们记录了由 SNAP 引起的、幅度较大的月内食品支出周期。然而，我们发现零售商并不会基于这些可预测的需求模式来调整价格。因此，我们的结果表明，改革发放时间表可能降低由 SNAP 引起的需求激增所带来的成本，但不太可能影响 SNAP 福利的归宿。（JEL D12, H75, I18, I38, L81）
Abstract
Many safety net programs issue benefits as monthly lump-sum payments. We investigate how the timing of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit issuance affects food purchases and the incidence of the transfer. Using scanner data from a large sample of grocery stores and state and time variation in SNAP issuance schedules, we document large, SNAP-induced intramonth cycles in food expenditures. However, we find that retailers do not adjust prices based on these predictable patterns of demand. Our results therefore suggest that reforming issuance schedules may reduce costs from SNAP-induced demand surges but are unlikely to affect the incidence of SNAP benefits. (JEL D12, H75, I18, I38, L81)