TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Meckel, Katherine
AU  - Rossin-Slater, Maya
AU  - Uniat, Lindsey
        TI  - Efficiency Versus Equity in the Provision of In-Kind Benefits: Evidence from Cost Containment in the California WIC Program
        PY  - 2020/Feb/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 12957
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp12957
        AB  - The government often contracts with private firms to deliver in-kind safety net benefits. These public-private partnerships generate agency problems that could increase costs, but cost-containment reforms may discourage firm participation. We study a 2012 reform of California's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children that reduced the number of small vendors. We show that within-ZIP-code access to small vendors increases take-up among first-time and foreign-born mothers, suggesting that small vendors are distinctly effective at lowering take-up barriers among women with high program learning costs. Thus, cost containment reforms may have unintended consequences of inequitably reducing program access.
        KW  - WIC program
KW  - benefit take-up
KW  - in-kind transfers
KW  - cost containment
        ER  -