In response to low consumption of fruits and vegetables by SNAP recipients, the USDA
Food and Nutrition Service created the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP) to test the efficacy
of providing a 30% incentive for purchases of fruits and vegetables. Published elasticity
estimates imply that a pure price reduction of 30% would increase fruit and vegetable
consumption by about 20%, i.e., about a fifth of a cup per day. This paper considers the
applicability of predictions based on a pure price reduction. It then reports interim results
of a random assignment evaluation of HIP which find an increase of about a fifth of a cup
per day.
