Work

Does WIC work? The effects of WIC on pregnancy and birth outcomes

Year: 2004

Type: article

Abstract: Support for WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, is based on the belief that "WIC works." This consensus has lately been questioned by researchers who point out that most WIC research fails to properly control for selection into the program. This paper evaluates the selection problem using rich data from the national Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. We show that relative to Medicaid mothers, all of whom are eligible for WIC, WIC participants are negatively selected on a wide array of observable dimensions, and yet WIC participation is associated with improved birth outcomes, even after controlling for observables and for a full set of state-year interactions intended to capture unobservables that vary at the state-year level. The positive impacts of WIC are larger among subsets of even more disadvantaged women, such as those who received public assistance last year, single high school dropouts, and teen mothers.

Source: Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

DOI: 10.1002/pam.20070

Authors: Marianne P. Bitler, Janet Currie

Institutions: RAND Corporation, University of California, Los Angeles

Language: English

Topic: Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities, No poverty, Zero hunger

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development