THE NEW YORK CITY GREEN CART PROGRAM: AN IMPACT EVALUATION

Abstract

In this thesis, I carry out an impact evaluation of the New York City Green Cart Program, which allows pushcarts selling exclusively fruit and vegetables to operate on the streets in selected neighborhoods in an attempt to increase individuals’ consumption of fruit and vegetables. Using a difference-in-differences evaluation framework, I find no statistically significant effect of the program on the quantity of fruit and vegetables consumed. I argue that this lack of effect arises from carts’ tendency to locate close to grocery stores – I find no effect of the program on individuals’ physical access to fruit and vegetables. I do find that individuals’ economic access to fruit and vegetables may have improved as a result of the program – I estimate that unit fruit and vegetable prices decrease between 1.8 and 8.1-cents for every meter a store is located closer to a Green Cart as compared to a proxy in the control area – though this is a measure of association, and not necessarily causation. In summary, I find that the Green Cart Program is ineffective in achieving its aims, and suggest that regulations preventing carts from locating close to existing grocery stores could be put in place to address the problem that carts do not actually increase individuals’ physical access to fruit and vegetables.