Working Papers
The Long-Term Effects of Universal Free School Meal Policies: Evidence from the Community Eligibility Provision
đź“„ Slides
School meal policies in the United States are at a crossroads: half of public K–12 schools provide universal free meals to all students, regardless of income, while the other half offer free and reduced-price (FRP) meals based on income eligibility. Do universal policies improve student outcomes compared to targeted policies for low-income children? I evaluate the short- and long-term effects of universal free school meal policies using linked administrative data from Texas. I exploit the staggered rollout of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a federal policy that allows high-poverty schools to offer meals free to all students. I find that CEP increases meal take-up by 6.2 percentage points, or 20 additional meals per student per year (a 10 percent increase). Higher-income students previously ineligible for FRP are more responsive to CEP than low-income students already eligible under FRP. Despite the increase in take-up, I detect no improvements in academic, behavioral, or economic outcomes, either overall or across subgroups, in the short or long run. Applying the marginal value of public funds framework, I show that the costs of CEP exceed its benefits, suggesting limited efficiency gains from universal provision relative to targeted support.
Screening Out the Needy: The Effects of SNAP Work Requirements
(with Hyewon Kim and Pauline Leung)
We examine the effectiveness of work requirements as a screening device in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Work requirements for “able-bodied adults without dependents” were suspended after the Great Recession and gradually reinstated across counties and states in the 2010s. Using linked administrative SNAP and employment data from five states and a triple-differences design, we find that work requirements reduce SNAP participation by seven percent without increasing labor supply and disproportionately screen out low-income individuals. We develop a welfare framework to interpret these results and find that the social costs of work requirements exceed budget savings.
When Free Lunch Is No Longer a Proxy for Student Poverty: Effects of the Community Eligibility Provision on State K–12 Funding
I examine an unintended consequence of universal school meals for K–12 school finance. More than 30 states allocate additional funding to economically disadvantaged students based on students’ eligibility for free and reduced-price (FRP) meals. When schools adopt the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows them to provide free meals to all students regardless of income, families have less incentive to submit the applications used to determine FRP eligibility. Using nationwide district-level data, I find that CEP reduces FRP applications by 7.6 percentage points, a 27 percent decline, and lowers state funding by approximately $358 per student annually, or 3 percent. The funding effects are concentrated in states with greater exposure to CEP and in states that rely on alternative family-reported income forms to supplement FRP counts. These findings underscore the need to monitor the measures used to allocate resources as universal school meals expand.