Transaction Costs and the Take-Up of Social Safety Net Programs: Evidence From the Combined Application Project

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kleinman, Rosa
• 署名单位: Harvard University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1520-6688
• DOI: 10.1002/pam.70086
• 发表日期: 2026-02-23
• 页码: e70086
• 关键词: auto-enrollment; Social safety net; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; welfare

摘要

This paper studies the effect of transaction costs on the take-up and targeting of social safety net programs in the context of multi-program enrollment by exploiting the Combined Application Project (CAP), a widespread state-level policy designed to encourage enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) among elderly recipients of Supplemental Security Income. I show that the CAP increased SNAP take-up by 8-13 percentage points, or about 17%-24%. The increase was suggestively larger among those with a higher probability of being food insecure. Exploiting heterogeneity in the format of the CAP across states, I find that auto-enrollment most effectively increased SNAP take-up.