Do State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Policies affect Older Adults and People with Disabilities?

This study examines the effect of state SNAP policies on access to SNAP benefits for the older
adults and people with disabilities. Although SNAP is a federal program, states have considerable
power to choose which policies to adopt, when to adopt them, and to what extent those policies
cover their population. Previous research has focused on a single policy database and using policy
indices to measure the impact of SNAP policies on caseloads. Using state policy variation from
the SNAP Policy Database and the SNAP State Option Reports, this study uses two-way fixed
effects and difference-in-differences models to understand the effects of both individual SNAP
policies and the policy indices. Results indicate that SNAP policies that improve eligibility and
reduce transaction costs increase participation among older adults and people with disabilities and
restrictive policies reduce participation. The magnitudes of these coefficients are larger for the
older adults and people with disabilities compared to the general population.