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The Material Well-Being of Single Mother Households in the 1980s and 1990s: What Can We Learn From Food Spending?

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Author Info
Thomas DeLeire
Helen Levy

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Abstract

A combination of welfare reform, expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and other policy changes led to increases in the labor supply of single mothers in the 1990s and a decline in their participation in cash welfare programs. Whether the material well-being of single mothers and their families has improved is less clear. Meyer and Sullivan (2004) report that single mothers’ food expenditure increased during the 1990s and conclude that their well-being either improved or remained the same, relative to single childless women or married women with children. Our reading of the data suggests that a more cautious interpretation is in order. In particular, we note that increases in food spending do not necessarily reflect increases in well-being. Total food spending may change even though the actual food consumed did not if there is a shift from home-prepared food to commercially-prepared or restaurant food. We examine trends in spending on food at home and food away from home using data from the Consumer Expenditure Diary Survey and find that they are consistent with such a shift. We find that the entire increase in food expenditure can be explained by a shift from food at home to food away from home.

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Paper provided by Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago in its series Working Papers with number 0501.

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Date of creation: Sep 2004
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Handle: RePEc:har:wpaper:0501

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Related research
Keywords: welfare reform; earned income tax credit; food; food expenditures; food consumption; single mothers;

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2004. "Consumption vs. Expenditure," NBER Working Papers 10307, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2005. "Consumption versus Expenditure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(5), pages 919-948, October.
  3. Marianne P. Bitler & Jonah B. Gelbach & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2004. "Welfare Reform and Health," Working Papers 102-1, RAND Corporation Publications Department. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Bruce D. Meyer & Dan T. Rosenbaum, 2000. "Making Single Mothers Work: Recent Tax and Welfare Policy and its Effects," NBER Working Papers 7491, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Bruce D. Meyer & Dan T. Rosenbaum, 2001. "Welfare, The Earned Income Tax Credit, And The Labor Supply Of Single Mothers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(3), pages 1063-1114, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Jayanta Bhattacharya & Thomas DeLeire & Steven Haider & Janet Currie, 2002. "Heat or Eat? Cold Weather Shocks and Nutrition in Poor American Families," NBER Working Papers 9004, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Jeffrey Grogger, 2001. "The Effects of Time Limits and Other Policy Changes on Welfare Use, Work, and Income Among Female-Headed Families," NBER Working Papers 8153, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Robert A. Moffitt, 1999. "The Effect of Pre-PRWORA Waivers on AFDC Caseloads and Female Earnings, Income, and Labor Force Behavior," JCPR Working Papers 89, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
  9. Rebecca M. Blank, 2002. "Evaluating Welfare Reform in the United States," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1105-1166, December.
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  10. Wilde, Parke E & Ranney, Christine K, 2000. " The Monthly Food Stamp Cycle: Shopping Frequency and Food Intake Decisions in an Endogenous Switching Regression Framework," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, American Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 82(1), pages 200-213, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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