When SNAP benefits are only available to families with assets below a certain limit, families may choose to not accumulate assets or to spend down their assets to become or remain eligible for benefits. Program rules that exempt certain assets can also affect households’ financial choices. For example, more generous vehicle asset exemptions could lead families to use their savings to purchase a vehicle. For this reason, we examine six asset-related measures by household: having a bank account, having a bank account with at least $500, having a bank account with at least $2,000, amount of liquid assets, wealth minus home equity, and vehicle ownership. 5

Our results suggest that SNAP asset limits affect behavior at lower asset levels—those below the federal limit—but not at higher levels. Focusing on people in low-income households (those with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level), we find that being in a state with relaxed asset limits via BBCE increases the likelihood of living in a household that has a bank account by 5 percent, or 3 percentage points (figure 1). We find that BBCE also increases the likelihood that a person is in a household with at least $500 in a bank account (by 8 percent, or 2 percentage points).