Brent Kreider

Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we provide the first evidence on the causal transmission of food security from childhood to young adulthood. A causal assessment is complicated by unobserved factors that jointly influence food security status as a child and subsequently as a young adult. Using nonparametric partial identification methods, we find that growing up in a food secure household increases the chances of being food secure as a young adult by between 5.7 and 10.5 percentage points, or at least 7.9%.

The Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC) is considered a crucial component of the social safety net in the United States, yet there is limited supporting evidence on the effects of WIC on the nutritional well-being and food security of infants and young children. Two key identification problems have been especially difficult to address. First, the decision to take up WIC is endogenous as households are not randomly assigned to the program; recipients are likely to differ from nonrecipients in unobserved ways (e.g., prior health) that are related to associated outcomes.