Title: Welfare payments, food stamps and crime: evidence from US county-level data

Authors: Suzan Odabaşı; Patricia A. Duffy

Addresses: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Uşak University, Uşak, Turkey ' Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Auburn University, AL, USA

Abstract: This study examines whether the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) implementations had an effect on criminal activities. To address this problem, the present study utilises two main variations: 1) changes in waiver of the time limit for areas within the states; 2) increases in SNAP benefits. A county level panel data from 2009 to 2015 for 3,134 counties is employed to investigate the relationship between SNAP benefits and crime. The findings show that SNAP benefits contribute to a significant reduction in the criminal activities in both rural and urban counties. The estimation results indicate that changes in waivers to work-related time limits is one of the significant factors which have an impact on criminal activities. Additionally, income-motivated crimes such as property, robbery, and burglary are more likely to be affected by the changes in individuals' welfare and income level changes.

Keywords: economic development; welfare economics; economics of crime; panel data.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLAP.2023.130008

International Journal of Public Law and Policy, 2023 Vol.9 No.2, pp.160 - 174

Received: 09 Mar 2022
Accepted: 19 Mar 2022
Published online: 04 Apr 2023 *

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