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Research ArticleArticles

Efficiency Versus Equity in the Provision of In-Kind Benefits: Evidence from Cost Containment in the California WIC Program

Katherine Meckel, Maya Rossin-Slater and Lindsey Uniat
Published online before print February 10, 2021, 0120-10677R1; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.58.4.0120-10677R1
Katherine Meckel
†Katherine Meckel is an assistant professor of economics at University of California, San Diego, a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a research network affiliate at CESifo.
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  • For correspondence: [email protected]
Maya Rossin-Slater
‡Maya Rossin-Slater is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and research affiliate at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics.
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Lindsey Uniat
§Lindsey Uniat is a PhD candidate in the Economics Department at Yale University.
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Abstract

The government often contracts with private firms to deliver in-kind safety net benefits. These public-private partnerships generate agency problems that could increase costs, but cost-containment reforms may discourage firm participation. We study a 2012 reform of California’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children that reduced the number of small vendors. We show that within-ZIP-code access to small vendors increases take-up among first-time and foreign-born mothers, suggesting that small vendors are distinctly effective at lowering take-up barriers among women with high program learning costs. Thus, cost containment reforms may have unintended consequences of inequitably reducing program access.

Keywords:
  • WIC program
  • benefit take-up
  • in-kind transfers
  • cost containment
JEL:
  • H40
  • I18
  • I38

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Journal of Human Resources: 60 (3)
Journal of Human Resources
Vol. 60, Issue 3
1 May 2025
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Efficiency Versus Equity in the Provision of In-Kind Benefits: Evidence from Cost Containment in the California WIC Program
Katherine Meckel, Maya Rossin-Slater, Lindsey Uniat
Journal of Human Resources Feb 2021, 0120-10677R1; DOI: 10.3368/jhr.58.4.0120-10677R1

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Efficiency Versus Equity in the Provision of In-Kind Benefits: Evidence from Cost Containment in the California WIC Program
Katherine Meckel, Maya Rossin-Slater, Lindsey Uniat
Journal of Human Resources Feb 2021, 0120-10677R1; DOI: 10.3368/jhr.58.4.0120-10677R1
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Keywords

  • WIC program
  • benefit take-up
  • in-kind transfers
  • cost containment
  • H40
  • I18
  • I38
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