Excited to share our new @nberpubs paper (joint w/ @HilaryHoynes, @maya_rossin & Reed Walker) about the effects of providing Food Stamps (FS) to children on their adult human capital & health & productivity https://twitter.com/nberpubs/status/1248981630728855552

We use novel admin data (2000 Census & 2001-13 ACS) containing 43 million adults who had access to Food Stamps as kids in their birth county (via links to SSA's NUMIDENT). Research design is the county roll-out of Food Stamps previously vetted by @HilaryHoynes & @dwschanz

We find that adults with exposure to Food Stamps (FS) before age 5 accumulated 6% of a std. more human capital, economic self-sufficiency, neighborhood quality, and health combined (left: composite index, ITT; right: spline ITT; 6% above is TOT==>ITT scaled by FS exposure).

Breaking it down:
Adults with greater exposure to the FS as kids had
6% of std. more human capital
3% of std. increase in self-sufficiency
8% of std. improvement in adult neighborhood quality
We also see reductions in mortality and incarceration
(figure: spline by age group)