The Joint Impact of Income Supplementation and Food Prices on Child and Adolescent Overweight

David Rehkopf, University of California, San Francisco
Kate W. Strully, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)

Our analysis examines the independent and joint effects of income supplementation and food prices on child overweight from the ages of 2 to 18. We examine the effects of supplementation using variation from the national expansions and changing benefits structures of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). We examine the effects of prices using regional and temporal variation of baskets of unhealthy, healthy and fast food. We then examine whether there are interactions between income supplementation and local food pricing in determining onset of childhood overweight. These questions are examined using individual fixed effect regression models among children of participants of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 from 1990 to 2006. In aggregate we find that higher EITC benefits are associated with increased child overweight. However, among individual living in areas with the highest prices for healthy food, receipt of larger EITC benefits results in lower levels of overweight.