CPR Seminar Series: Shellye Suttles

Shellye Suttles, assistant professor, O’Neill School of Public &
Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, will present “Understanding Variation in State Policy and Politics of Food Environments” as part of the CPR Seminar Series.

Abstract: 

Measures of food environment quality seek to capture availability, accessibility, affordability, accommodation, and acceptability of food available to residents. At present time, measures of food security and food access play an important role in quantifying the affordability, accessibility, and availability aspects of food environment quality.

Existing research has thoroughly explored the relationship between state-level food policy and food security, food access, and food environments. We add to this field of study by examining the relationship between state-level partisan politics that lead to such policies and the resulting variation in food environment quality across states.

We use instrumental variable regression analysis to explore common measures of food security and food access as well as a new measure of food environment quality in the context of endogenous SNAP participation.

Ultimately, we find that political partisanship of governors, state-funded food financing, and certain SNAP policies are associated with variation in food environment quality across states.