Do all children share the same? A study of benefit sharing in WIC households

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a food assistance program designed to help low-income or nutritionally at risk pregnant (or postpartum) women, infants, and young children consume a nutritious diet.  WIC benefits are distributed in the form of paper vouchers that provide specific individuals the right to purchase (a set of pre-specified) foods that have been chosen to satisfy their unique nutritional needs.  Food, however, is often a communal commodity shared by all household members and the benefits received by a participant are often shared with WIC-ineligible family members.  This type of sharing has been found to reduce the beneficial impact of WIC participation and in some, but not all instances, is found to impose a cost on the enrolled family member.

This paper uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and Child Development Supplement (CDS) to identify the role a child’s gender has in determining the degree to which their WIC benefits are shared within a family.  The impact a child’s gender and family composition has on the nutrition and health benefits received from WIC participation will be modeled using standard econometric techniques.  The main focus of this research is to expand our knowledge and understanding of the role a participating child’s gender (along with the gender of others in their family) plays in determinig the degree of resource spreading that takes place.  Results are expected to indicate that some children within a WIC household share their benefits more than others and that gender will be an important factor in determining how benefits are distributed between family members.