| This dissertation examines the effect of participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on several aspects of health and healthcare expenditures. In the first paper, I use pooled waves of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) linked to longitudinal claims-level Medicaid data. I treat participation in SNAP as endogenous using several linear and non-linear instrumental variable estimation techniques, exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in state-level SNAP policies. Results suggest participation in SNAP has no robust, discernible effect on likelihood of diagnosis of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease.;The second paper investigates how the receipt of SNAP affects health care expenditures. I do this using linked National Health Interview Survey and Medicaid expenditure data. My identification strategy in this paper leverages variation in state SNAP enrollment policies. Results of these analyses indicate that receipt of SNAP leads to statistically significant lower total Medicaid expenditures. Medicaid savings were greatest during the same year as reported SNAP participation (∼$560), and persistent into the year after reported receipt of SNAP (∼$385).;The third paper applies panel data methods to more than a decade of data from the nationally representative Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Using repeated measures of individual level treatment exposure and outcomes, I estimate the effect of SNAP on self-assessed health status, height and weight, and indicators for whether a doctor has ever told the respondent that they have heart disease, hypertension, or diabetes. I find that SNAP participation leads to modest and statistically significant weight gain and increased likelihood of overweight in the same and subsequent year as reported SNAP participation.;Overall, this dissertation provides new information on the relationship between the largest US nutrition support program and health and has important policy implications related to how SNAP could be leveraged to improve health outcomes among income-eligible populations. |
