打印

作者

来源

URBAN STUDIES,Vol.55,Issue14,P.3234-3251

语言

英文

关键字

consumption; economic development; health; place-based policies; retail food; DESERTS

作者单位

[Freedman, Matthew] Univ Calif Irvine, Irvine, CA USA. [Kuhns, Annemarie] Econ Res Serv, USDA, Washington, DC 20024 USA. Freedman, M (reprint author), Univ Calif Irvine, Dept Econ, 3151 Social Sci Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697 USA. E-Mail: matthew.freedman@uci.edu

摘要

In an effort to improve diet and health outcomes, policymakers have increasingly turned to supply-side subsidies aimed at encouraging investment by supermarkets and other food retailers in low-income areas. This article examines whether the US federal government's New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) has affected the entry of retail food establishments, and in turn food shopping and purchasing patterns, in low-income communities. To identify the impacts of the programme, we take advantage of a discontinuity in NMTC funding generated by the formula used to determine the eligibility of census tracts for investment under the programme. We find that the NMTC Program has had modest, but positive impacts on supermarket entry in low-income communities. Based on household-level scanner data, there are no detectable effects on households' food purchasing patterns in affected neighbourhoods, at least in the short run.