In spring of 2020, the United States faced multiple challenges due to COVID-19. Although COVID-19 infections/deaths were the primary health concern, the rise in unemployment and food prices exerted economic and psychological pressures on U.S. households. One possible and direct consequence of unemployment and food-price increase is an increase in the likelihood of household food insecurity. If households cannot afford foods that they would like to consume, it leads to various degrees of food insecurity based on USDA definitions. In order to curb the negative consequences of COVID-19's economic shock, the U.S. government distributed stimulus payments, namely Economics Impact Payments (EIPs). For instance, the U.S. government distributed around $267 billion from early April to early June of 2020. Do you remember the U.S. government checks in your mailbox or the direct deposits during 2020? Those were the EIPs. The EIPs were up to $1,200 for eligible single tax filers ($2,400 for eligible joint tax filers), plus $500 for each dependent child.

In a recently published article (see here)**, I investigate whether EIPs have any relationship with household food insufficiency (a concept related to food insecurity). To the best of my knowledge, this is the first study that explores the relationship between stimulus payments (i.e., EIPs) and household food insufficiency. I find that the receipt or expectation of EIPs were associated with a 9.2 percentage points** decrease** in the likelihood of food insufficiency. However, that was not the whole story. In fact, households kept relying on acquiring free food to fight food hardship. So, households were pretty resourceful and tried to reduce their food hardship through multiple channels. Of course, there were many pressing issues that households needed to focus on, for instance, rent and health payments. I think a household that had no money left for food might have taken a trip to a free-food site?

Although my work on EIPs and household food insufficiency is one look at two important topics, more work is needed in this area. Stimulus payments are major fiscal expenditures by the U.S. government, and we need more studies on EIPs usage and impact. And household food insufficiency (or insecurity) is an ongoing issue in the U.S. which requires more research, to better understand and tackle the issue. The results from my study suggest that government efforts to provide more timely stimulus payments could be very impactful and can significantly impact household food insufficiency.

** Wahdat, A.Z. Economic Impact Payments and Household Food Insufficiency during COVID-19: The Case of Late Recipients. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41885-022-00115-9