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Food Stamp Enrollment And Mental Health: An Implicit Tax On The Poor, James Calvin Hasbany
Food Stamp Enrollment And Mental Health: An Implicit Tax On The Poor, James Calvin Hasbany
Economics
Objectives. This study examines whether food stamp participation status impacts the mental health of its recipients.
Methods. We use 2017 data from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics to construct a propensity score model to match treated and control individuals, circumventing inherent selection bias and estimating causal effects.
Results. We find that enrolling in food stamps within the past 30 days increases the frequency of emotional distress over the same timeframe, manifesting specifically in more frequent feelings of sadness, nervousness, hopelessness, ‘everything being an effort,’ and worthlessness.
Conclusions. Food stamp enrollment harms mental health more than it benefits it, …