Take-up of Free School Meals: Price Effects and Peer Effects

Abstract

29% of the 1.4 million eligible children do not participate in the UK's Free School Meals programme. Like other welfare benefits, take-up of free school meals is affected by stigma and lack of information. This paper uses a fixed-effect instrumental variables strategy to evaluate the role of peer-group participation in overcoming these barriers. Identification of endogenous peer effects is achieved by exploiting a scheme that extended free school meal entitlement to all children in some areas. Results show that a 10 percentage point rise in peer-group take-up reduces non-participation by 3.3-4.0 percentage points, or between 29% and 35%.