Asset and reporting policies in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Abstract

Over the past decade and a half legislative and regulatory changes at the federal level have given US states additional authority to design their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP). This devolution of policymaking authority has led to considerable ambiguity at the national level about the policies that states have put in place. Drawing on a new survey of state SNAP administrators, this paper characterizes two key areas of policy devolution: the treatment of household assets in eligibility determinations and participants' paperwork burden. We find asset and reporting policy changes to be widespread, and the states that have made changes most often adopt the most expansive policy change allowed. We also demonstrate that more accurate policy data sharpens the inferences we make about the effects of several of these policies on participation in SNAP.