Theses and Dissertations Collection

Does access to food stamps influence how low-income households use financial help from family and friends? Changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could affect not only low-income households but the informal financial networks of those households, leading to larger effects than anticipated. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1999-2007, I exploit a change in SNAP categorical eligibility in 2000 in order to create a difference-in-difference model. I find that SNAP usage increases significantly due to this change in eligibility but that private aid usage does not. Two explanations seem likely: (1) the relationship between the two types of aid is weak, especially as income increases, (2) some households lack robust private aid networks. Low-income SNAP households that seem to have less private aid available to them are generally married, less educated, urban, and/or Black.