Project: Effects on Childhood Obesity of Participation in Multiple Nutrition Assistance Programs
Award Year: 2008
Amount of award, fiscal 2008: $200,000.00
Institution: Indiana University
Principal Investigator: Rusty Tchernis
Status: Completed
Detailed Objective: This study will examine the shortrun and longrun effects on childhood obesity of participating in three Federal food assistance programs-the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), and the Food Stamp Program (FSP)-by using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K). The study will also assess the presence and extent of multiple program interactions by estimating the causal effects of different combinations of program participation on childhood obesity, thereby testing for whether cumulative effects of participation in multiple programs differ from the simple sum of estimated individual effects. A variety of econometric techniques, including instrumental variables (IV), will be used to assess the sensitivity of estimated results to participant self-selection into the three programs.
Topic: Obesity, School Lunch and Breakfast, SNAP/Food Stamp Program
Dataset: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K)
Output:
Tchernis, R., D. Millimet, and X. Zhou. Effects on Childhood Obesity of Participation in Multiple Federal Nutrition Assistance Programs, Contractor and Cooperator Report No. 74, March 2012.