Work in Progress

WIC participant responses to vendor disqualification

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 US food assistance programs require that participants redeem benefits at authorized food retailers. In this paper, I examine how participants' use of their benefits changes if food retailers become unauthorized. Using a novel natural experiment in the WIC authorization of retailers, I find that a participant that loses access to an authorized retailer is less likely to participate in WIC and redeems a smaller share of their WIC benefits. These changes provide insight into the unintended consequences of food assistance program structure and how low-income individuals respond to changes in their food retail choice set.
Effects of WIC EBT and package changes on food retail
(with Timothy KM Beatty, Marianne P Bitler, Xinzhe H Cheng, Matthew P Rabbitt)

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We evaluate the effect of two major policy changes in WIC (the implementation of Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) technology and the 2009-2010 package change) on the authorization outcomes of WIC vendors. This paper uses administrative data from the Integrity Profile and the Store Tracking and Redemptions System, as well as a nationwide policy implementation data set that we construct on WIC EBT implementation. Using a staggered adoption difference-in-differences approach, we find mixed effects of WIC EBT in different states and broadly insignificant effects of the package change on authorization of WIC retailers. In general, independent retailers are more likely to become unauthorized following WIC EBT implementation. The experience of the financial services provider contracted to implement WIC EBT by state may mediate the magnitude of the effect of EBT on vendor authorization outcomes.
Robustness of US food assistance programs to price shocks and stockouts
(with Timothy KM Beatty)
The role of food assistance in rural areas
(with Timothy KM Beatty, Alexandra E Hill, and Benjamin T King)

Published

“U.S. Nutrition Assistance Program Responses to COVID-19.” 2020. With T. Beatty. ARE Update 23(5): 5-8. Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California.
We review the three largest nutrition assistance programs in the United States—SNAP, NSLP, and WIC— and discuss how these programs can help address the food security challenge posed by the COVID-19 crisis. We will also provide a summary of policy changes made to date in these programs, and a snapshot of where policy may be headed. We conclude with some considerations for policymakers on effective policy changes particular to this situation.
“Changes to Nutrition Programs in the 2018 Farm Bill.” 2019. With T. Beatty. ARE Update 22(3): 9–11. Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California.
Nutrition programs comprise 76% of Farm Bill spending. These programs target families, children, and other vulnerable populations, and have historically enjoyed wide bipartisan support. A broad literature documents positive health and well-being effects on program participants. Changes in the most recent Farm Bill and in proposed rules by the USDA will affect eligibility requirements, restricting the population of individuals who qualify for food stamps. We synthesize these changes and consider likely consequences.
“Can CalFresh Cut Costs and Better Serve California’s Agricultural Counties?” 2018. With A. Hill. ARE Update 21(5): 9-11. Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California.
Higher rates of employment are associated with more CalFresh caseload terminations, which then increase applications from previous recipients. Reapplications are costly to the state and participants. These effects are largest in California counties with high agricultural employment.
“Political ecology and decolonial research: co-production with the Inupiat in Utqiagvik.” 2020. With L. Zanotti, C. Carothers, C. Apok, S. Huang, and J. Coleman. Journal of Political Ecology 27(1): 43-66.
Environmental social science research designs have shifted over the past several decades to include an increased commitment to multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary team-based work that have had dual but complementary foci. These address power and equity in the substantive aspects of research, and also to adopt more engaged forms of practice, including decolonial approaches. The fields of political ecology, human geography, and environmental anthropology have been especially open to converge with indigenous scholarship, particularly decolonial and settler colonial theories and research designs, within dominant human-environmental social science paradigms. Scholars at the forefront of this dialogue highlight the ontological (ways of knowing), epistemological (how we know), and institutional (institutions of higher education) transformations that need to occur in order for this to take place. In this article we contribute to this literature in two ways. First, we highlight the synergies between political ecology and decolonial scholarship, particularly focusing on the power dynamics in research programs and historical legacies of human-environmental relationships, including those of researchers. Second, we explore how decolonial research pushes political ecologists and other environmental social scientists to not only consider adopting international and local standards of working with, by and for Indigenous Peoples within research programs but how this work ultimately extends to research and education within their home institutions and organizations. Through integrating decolonized research practices in the environmental social sciences, we argue that synthesizing multiple knowledge practices and transforming institutional structures will enhance team-based environmental social science work to improve collaboration with Indigenous scientists, subsistence practitioners, agency representatives, and sovereign members of Indigenous communities.