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Title: The Effects of WIC on Children's Outcomes
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Bitler, Marianne Parcella
Currie, Janet
Thomas, Duncan
The Effects of WIC on Children's Outcomes
Working Paper, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, October 2001
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: RAND
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Birthweight; Breastfeeding; Child Health; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Food Stamps (see Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program); Head Start; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Infants; Medicaid/Medicare; Memory for Digit Span (WISC) - also see Digit Span; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Mothers, Behavior; Mothers, Health; Motor and Social Development (MSD); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Welfare

This paper examines the effect of the Special Supplement Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Previous studies have found extensive evidence of positive effects of WIC on a variety of pregnancy outcomes, yet few have found any longer lasting evidence of the effect of WIC on young children. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find evidence that WIC may have positive but small effects on some pregnancy outcomes and on some cognitive test scores and on Medicaid and Food Stamp use in regressions with family fixed effects. However, in instrumental variables analysis, WIC has a negative effect on one motor skill test and no effect in other test scores.
Bibliography Citation
Bitler, Marianne Parcella, Janet Currie and Duncan Thomas. "The Effects of WIC on Children's Outcomes." Working Paper, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, October 2001.