Justine Hastings
Economics & Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University
Justine S. Hastings is a Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs at Brown University and a Faculty Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her areas of expertise include research in Industrial Organization and Public Economics which address important economic and public policy questions. She has conducted academic research on topics such as market structure and competition, environment and energy regulation, advertising and consumer protection, consumer financial markets, health care, social safety-net programs, and markets for higher education. Her research employs diverse empirical techniques including field experiments, survey analysis, machine learning, predictive analytics, analysis of large administrative datasets, and structural demand and supply estimation. Her research was cited in the 2017 Nobel Prize scientific background materials, and has been used to shape public policy improvements around the world. Professor Hastings has served as an expert advisor on the Academic Research Council to the United States Federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is the founding director of Research Improving People’s Lives (RIPL), a nonprofit research institute using data and science to impact policy and improve lives. She has served as the Managing Editor for the International Journal on Industrial Organization, an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Economic Literature, and a Co-Editor for the Journal of Public Economics.
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Children and FamiliesThe Effect of SNAP on the Composition of Purchased Foods: Evidence and Implications
Researchers at Brown University released a working paper analyzing the effects of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on nutritional quality of purchased foods. Examining seven years of transaction records at a large U.S. grocery chain, the team found that SNAP participation had only a small effect on the nutritional quality of purchased foods.
June 17, 2019
|Evidence
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Children and FamiliesHow are SNAP Benefits Spent? Evidence from a Retail Panel
Justine Hastings and Jesse M. Shapiro of Brown University released a paper in the American Economic Review analyzing the effects of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on household spending, finding that every hundred dollars in SNAP benefits leads to between $50 and $60 of additional food spending each month.
December 15, 2018
|Evidence
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Nutrition and Physical ActivityTesting a Hypothesis: Whether SNAP Helps Families Put Food on the TableStudying the effect of SNAP requires both high-quality data on household food purchases or diet, and a valid strategy for separating the effect of SNAP from other influences on household spending. To circumvent some of these challenges, Jesse Shapiro and Justine Hastings obtained and analyzed large-scale retail data that follows grocery store shoppers over nearly seven years.
November 19, 2018
|P4A Spark
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Children and FamiliesThe Effect of SNAP on Food Purchases and Family Nutrition
Does enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) encourage families to purchase healthier foods and thereby increase the nutrition of those families enrolled in the program?
To answer this central question, this study will use an event-study design coupled with new, high-scale commercial transaction data from a grocery retailer to provide precise evidence on the effect of SNAP receipt on the amount and composition of food purchases. The study will generate evidence on the effects of SNAP enrollment from early childhood through adulthood.
October 21, 2016
|Has Evidence
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