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Abstract
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) has been criticized for providing high
calorie lunches to over 31 million school-age students. With nearly 17 percent of children
considered obese, the relationship between NSLP participation and childhood obesity has been
studied extensively without conclusive evidence. This paper presents a review of the literature
thus far and examines identification issues when estimating the average treatment effect or local
average treatment effect of the NSLP. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey (NHANES), the author finds that when restrictive parametric assumptions
are removed, participation in the NSLP reduces the probability of being obese in school age
children.