This paper analyzes the effect of access to different types of food outlets on households’ food insecurity levels. Two years (2004 and 2005) of Current Population Survey – Food Security Supplement data are matched with MSA-level data on store counts of Wal-Mart Supercenters, small food stores (small grocery stores and convenience stores), medium and large grocery stores, and convenience stores associated with gas stations. Endogeneity of food stores’ location is accounted for to eliminate spurious correlation between households’ food security status and food access. Preliminary results indicate that, before accounting for endogeneity bias, the presence of Wal-Mart supercenters appears to be associated to higher levels of households’ food insecurity, while the presence of other food stores is associated with lower levels. After eliminating spurious correlation, only the presence of small food stores appears helping to reduce food insecurity (across measures of food insecurity and data samples) while the presence of gas convenience stores is associated with higher likelihoods of experiencing food insecurity. The presence of Wal-Mart supercenters and that of medium and large grocery stores have little to no impact on the likelihood of a household being food insecure (the first showing only weak evidence of a mitigating effect, the second, instead, showing weak evidence of a magnifying effect).

本文分析了不同类型的餐饮网点对家庭食品不安全水平的影响。两年来(2004年和2005年)的当前人口调查——食品安全补充数据与沃尔玛超市、小型食品商店(小杂货店和便利店)、大中型杂货店和与加油站相关的便利店的msa水平的数据相匹配。考虑了食品商店位置的内生性，以消除家庭食品安全状况与食品获取之间的虚假相关性。初步结果表明，在考虑内遗传偏见之前，沃尔玛超市的存在似乎与较高水平的家庭食品不安全有关，而其他食品商店的存在则与较低水平的家庭食品不安全有关。在消除了虚假的相关性之后，只有小型食品商店的存在似乎有助于减少食品不安全(通过对食品不安全的衡量和数据样本)，而汽油便利店的存在与经历食品不安全的较高可能性有关。沃尔玛超市和大中型杂货店的存在对家庭发生食品不安全的可能性几乎没有或没有影响(前者只显示出微弱的缓和效应，而后者则显示出微弱的放大效应)。