• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: Take-up of Free School Meals: Price Effects and Peer Effects
  • Beteiligte: Holford, Angus
  • Erschienen: Blackwell Publishing, 2015
  • Erschienen in: Economica, 82 (2015) 328, Seite 976-993
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • ISSN: 0013-0427; 1468-0335
  • Entstehung:
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  • Beschreibung: 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%.