Publication Date:
2016-05-19
Description:
This paper investigates how the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP), a nutrition assistance program that provides funding for the distribution of free fresh fruits and vegetables to students in participating schools, affects childhood obesity using a panel data set of Arkansas public schoolchildren with two different approaches. First, we combine matching methodology and difference-in-differences (DID) analysis. Second, we use the synthetic control method to compare each FFVP participating school to a similar, albeit synthetic, control school. Both analyses show that FFVP program causes an economically meaningful reduction in the obesity outcome of participating children.
Keywords:
I18 - Government Policy
;
Regulation
;
Public Health, Q18 - Agricultural Policy
;
Food Policy
Print ISSN:
2040-5790
Electronic ISSN:
2040-5804
Topics:
Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
,
Economics