Price Index by Timing in SNAP Month
| All Foods | Foods Commonly Bought throughout the SNAP Month | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UPC Price Index (1) | UPC Price Index (2) | Food Category Price Index (3) | Food Category Price Index (4) | UPC Price Index (5) | UPC Price Index (6) | Food Category Price Index (7) | Food Category Price Index (8) | |
| First half of SNAP month | −0.020*** (0.004) | −0.019*** (0.004) | −0.010*** (0.002) | −0.011*** (0.001) | −0.021*** (0.002) | −0.022*** (0.002) | −0.050*** (0.002) | −0.051*** (0.002) |
| Observations | 1,031 | 1,031 | 1,304 | 1,303 | 968 | 968 | 1,283 | 1,282 |
| Demographics/food environment controls | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Source: Authors’ estimates using FoodAPS data and the FoodAPS IRI subset.
↵Notes: Significance: *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01. Survey weights applied in estimation and standard errors (in parentheses) adjust for complex survey design. First Half of SNAP Month = at least one survey day occurs less than seven days since SNAP was last received. Columns 1–2 and 5–6 have as outcome variables price indexes that use UPC–week–local region IRI price data to compute average price for a good. Columns 3–4 and 7–8 have as outcome variables price indexes that use food category–month–psu FoodAPS survey price data to compute average price for a good. All regressions include controls for PSUs. Demographic and food environment controls include indicator for the household reference person being Black, of other non-Hispanic nonwhite race/ethnicity, household size, number of children in the household, number of household members over age 60, number of household members employed, household monthly income, an indicator for owning/leasing a car or having access to a car when needed, household living in a rural census tract, number of supercenters and superstores within 0.5 miles of the home, and distance to the nearest supercenter or superstore. Categories in which foods are commonly bought throughout the SNAP month are those where at least 30 percent (the median observed share across all categories) of households purchased an item in that category in both the first and second half of the SNAP month. See Online Appendix Table 5 for a list of the food categories that meet this definition.