Evaluating the causal effects of government rice discount subsidy programmes on consumption among socioeconomically vulnerable populations: a pseudo-DID approach

This study evaluates the effects of Korea’s Rice Discount Support Program on rice consumption among low-income households. To address the absence of control and treatment group data, a modified difference-in-differences (DID) model is developed using the proportion of eligible beneficiary group. The results indicate that the policy increased annual per-capita rice consumption among vulnerable households by approximately 0.1847 kg. This finding suggests that the subsidy alleviates the economic burden on low-income households, improves access to staple foods, and strengthens food security and social equity.