Expanding benefits: the impact of a Universal Free School Meal policy on non-cognitive skills

Summary

School-based policies may influence children's non-cognitive development, a strong predictor of future life outcomes. This article investigates the short-run impact of the Universal Infant Free School Meal Policy on children's non-cognitive skills relying on a sample of children aged five from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). To identify the causal effect of the policy, we use a difference-in-difference strategy by exploiting exogenous variations in the timing and location of switching from a means-tested to a universal provision of free school lunches. Our results show that exposure to universal free school lunches improves children's Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) by 0.21 standard deviation points. The effect seems to be driven by pupils living in medium-income households, for whom the policy change seems more relevant. A potential explanatory mechanism has to do with the reduction in social stigma associated with the transition from means-tested to universally provided school lunches.