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Abstract
This paper examines the effects of food deserts in the Greater Los Angeles
area on the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program participants’ shopping
behavior. Research on WIC program cost containment shows that costs are significantly
higher at small, convenience-type vendors compared to supermarkets. However, to
address the concern that stopping authorizing these small vendors or restricting their
pricing practices could limit food access for participants living in food deserts, we use
various approaches to study the WIC purchasing behavior of participants located in food
deserts relative to a control group of participants located in non food-desert areas. Our
results indicate that food-desert status has a positive effect on participants’ travel distance
to shop. Food-desert participants were slightly more likely to visit multiple vendors than
non-food-desert counterparts. Food-desert participants were also slightly more likely to
visit a large vendor than non-food-desert counterparts. On balance we conclude that
food-desert participants are not more reliant on small vendors to make WIC purchases
than participants in the control group. This result suggests policies to restrict behavior
high-cost small vendors can be implemented by WIC agencies without causing much
impact on participant access.