Erkmen G. Aslim,
Wei Fu (Louisville), Erdal Tekin (American University), and Shijun You (Lehigh), "From Syringes to Dishes: Improving Food Insufficiency through Vaccination.," IZA Discussion Paper
16009 & NBER Working Paper 31045. Revised & Resubmitted,
Journal of Public Economics.
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on food insecurity in the United
States, using data from the Household Pulse Survey. Our primary research design exploits
variation in vaccine eligibility across states over time as an instrumental variable to address
the endogeneity of vaccination decision. We find that vaccination had a substantial impact
on food hardship by reducing the likelihood of food insecurity by 24%, with even stronger
effects among minority and financially disadvantaged populations. Our results are robust
to alternative specifications and the use of regression discontinuity as an alternative
identification strategy. We also show that vaccine eligibility had a positive spillover impact
on food assistance programs, specifically by reducing participation in the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which suggests that vaccination policy can be
effective in alleviating the fiscal burden of the pandemic on the government. Furthermore,
our analysis indicates that vaccinated individuals exhibit increased financial optimism, as
measured by expectations about future loss of employment and income as well as ability to
make mortgage and debt payments. Based on the point estimates, the implied elasticity of
food insecurity with respect to financial optimism is between -0.57 and -0.86. Our findings
suggest that the COVID-19 vaccination program has implications that extend beyond the
direct health benefits. Taken together, our results underscore the critical role of medical
innovations and health interventions in improving economic optimism and food security,
especially among vulnerable populations, during public health crises.
JEL codes
I14, I18
Keywords
food insecurity, food stamps, vaccination, financial optimism,
COVID-19
