Effects of competing food desert policies on store format choice among SNAP participants

Abstract We measure how Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants respond to policies designed to improve access to retail food store formats that stock healthy foods, specifically grocery stores. Supply‐side policies seek to increase the supply of grocery stores by subsidizing store openings. Demand‐side policies seek to increase the demand for food from grocery stores by, for example, increasing benefits. Unique SNAP administrative data allow us to estimate and compare impacts of grocery store openings and a SNAP benefit increase at a fine geographic scale. We find both policies increase shopping at grocery stores relative to other store formats but observe substantive impacts for grocery store openings only among households in very close proximity to the opening. Furthermore, we find that the impacts are mediated by car ownership and food desert status. In particular, households without cars in food deserts exhibit the largest impact. Grocery store openings decrease SNAP spending shares primarily at ethnic stores, whereas benefit increases decrease SNAP spending shares at convenience stores. Neither policy decreases total SNAP spending at convenience stores. The spillover effects on shopping at other store formats therefore make the potential effect on access to healthy food ambiguous.