Eat (and Drink) Better Tonight: Food Stamp Benefit Timing and Drunk Driving Fatalities

B-Tier
Journal: American Journal of Health Economics
Year: 2016
Volume: 2
Issue: 4
Pages: 511-534

Authors (3)

Chad Cotti (not in RePEc) John Gordanier (not in RePEc) Orgul Ozturk (University of South Carolina)

Score contribution per author:

0.670 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the timing of food stamp benefits and daily alcohol-related fatal accidents. We exploit substantial exogenous variation in state food stamp distribution dates and enrollment numbers to estimate the relationship using binary outcome and count data frameworks. Our main result is that, in contrast to previous work on income receipt and mortality, alcohol-related accidents with fatalities are substantially lower on the date of food stamp receipt, and the result is largely driven by a same-day effect. Further, this effect is only present on weekdays. We find no effect of receipt on non-alcohol-related accidents. We hypothesize that this is possibly driven by families being more likely to eat at home on distribution days.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:amjhec:v:2:y:2016:i:4:p:511-534
Journal Field
Health
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-25