Resource booms, state economic conditions, and child food security

Abstract

Child food security is a longstanding concern to policymakers, exacerbated by economic slack and instability. We use the fracking era oil and gas boom of the early 2000s as a natural experiment to examine the importance of state economic conditions for child food security. The fracking boom was a large and unexpected economic shock that substantially improved labor market conditions in states with oil and gas resources but not elsewhere. We find that increases in oil and gas labor income improve child food security, especially for children with less educated parents and those residing in single-mother households.