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The Effects of Food Stamps on Obesity

By Charles Baum. ERS project representative: Dean Jolliffe

Contractor and Cooperator Report No. (CCR-34) 110 pp, September 2007

This report uses 1985-2000 data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine the effects of the Food Stamp Program on obesity. The effects are found to differ by gender, level of benefits, and duration of participation. Results suggest that, for females, current program participation increases Body Mass Index (by 0.5 index point on average) as well as the probability of being obese (between 2 and 5 percentage points). Current program participation was not found to have significant effects for males. Long-term participation is found to increase obesity for females and males.

Disclaimer: This study was conducted by Middle Tennessee State University under Cooperative Research Agreement No. 43-3AEM-4-80097 with the Economic Research Service. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA.

Keywords: Food assistance, Food Stamp Program, food stamps, nutrition, obesity, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, FANRP, ERS, USDA

In this report ...

Chapters are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

Updated date: September 21, 2007

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