Changes in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program real benefits and daily caloric intake among adults

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest food-assistance program in the United States, providing support for low-income families to purchase food from stores. Previous research has found that adult participants experience a decline in caloric intake at the end of their benefit month. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we exploit the variation in real SNAP benefits between 2007 and 2014 arising from policy changes and inflation over the period to study how real benefits affect the cycle of food intake over the benefit month among working-age adults in SNAP households. We find that greater real benefit levels reduce the SNAP cycle in daily dietary intake, but that larger changes in benefit amounts would be required to eliminate cyclic intake.