Supplemental nutrition assistance program and parents’ time investments in children

An emerging literature explores whether social policy programs have benefits to families and their children, above and beyond economic and human capital outcomes. We investigate whether the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), an anti-poverty program, is associated with the time that parents invest in their children. We assess the association between SNAP and parental time investments by leveraging the temporary expansion of SNAP benefits provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Applying a difference-in-difference with Coarsened Exact Matching approach to data from the American Time Use Survey, we investigate whether increased SNAP benefit levels were associated with parental time investments in basic care, management, play, and teaching activities. We find that ARRA-induced increases in SNAP benefit levels were associated with a decreased probability of time spent on management activities and an increased probability of time spent on basic care among single parents. This suggests that SNAP benefit increases influence how parents allocate time to their children.