Why Federal Food Aid Became Politically Polarizing—and What to Do About It

Why Federal Food Aid Became Politically Polarizing—and What to Do About It

A new study shows how the rollout of the Food Stamp program led to racial polarization in voting patterns and suggests how to fix this.

Dissecting Racial Politicization: Long-Run Evidence from the Food Stamp Program

Authors: Carlos F. Avenancio-León, University of California San DiegoTroup Howard, University Of UtahWilliam Mullins, University of California San Diego Abstract: We explore long-run racial polarization induced by the original Food Stamps Program: a major policy choice to expand the social safety net in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Combining the county-level rollout with an experience-exposure DiD design, we use voter microdata for …