IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/isu/genres/10566.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Assistance Programs and Outcomes: Food Assistance in the Context of Welfare Reform

Author

Listed:
  • Huffman, Sonya K.
  • Jensen, Helen H.

Abstract

Food assistance programs play an important role in meeting the basic needs of low-income households. We consider the complex interactions among food stamps, labor force participation, and food insecurity status of low-income households under different program designs and economic conditions. The analysis uses data from the Survey of Program Dynamics to jointly estimate the role of participation in the Food Stamp Program (FSP), labor market participation and well-being, measured as food security, through the use of a simultaneous equation model. The results of our research suggest that food insecurity has a positive effect on FSP participation while labor force participation reduces FSP participation. Furthermore, FSP participation is more responsive to changes in the program benefits than to changes in nonlabor income. The linkages among food program participation, labor force participation, and well-being, measured in terms of food insecurity, are complex. The structural approach provides evidence that, among low-income households, program parameters affect FSP participation but no evidence that the food assistance reduces food insecurity.

Suggested Citation

  • Huffman, Sonya K. & Jensen, Helen H., 2003. "Social Assistance Programs and Outcomes: Food Assistance in the Context of Welfare Reform," Staff General Research Papers Archive 10566, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:isu:genres:10566
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/papers/paper_10566.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fraker, Thomas & Moffitt, Robert, 1988. "The effect of food stamps on labor supply : A bivariate selection model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 25-56, February.
    2. Helen H. Jensen, 2002. "Food Insecurity and the Food Stamp Program," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1215-1228.
    3. Craig Gundersen & Victor Oliveira, 2001. "The Food Stamp Program and Food Insufficiency," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(4), pages 875-887.
    4. Moffitt, Robert, 1983. "An Economic Model of Welfare Stigma," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 1023-1035, December.
    5. Mallar, Charles D, 1977. "The Estimation of Simultaneous Probability Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(7), pages 1717-1722, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huffman, Sonya Kostova & Jensen, Helen H., 2003. "Do Food Assistance Programs Improve Household Food Security?: Recent Evidence From The United States," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22219, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. Sonya Kostova Huffman & Helen H. Jensen, 2008. "Food Assistance Programs and Outcomes in the Context of Welfare Reform," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(1), pages 95-115, March.
    3. Helen H. Jensen & Brent Kreider & Oleksandr Zhylyevskyy, 2019. "Investigating Treatment Effects of Participating Jointly in SNAP and WIC when the Treatment Is Validated Only for SNAP," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(1), pages 124-155, July.
    4. Anthony G. Murray & Bradford F. Mills, 2014. "The Impact Of Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Participation On Household Energy Insecurity," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(4), pages 811-825, October.
    5. Gundersen, Craig & Weinreb, Linda & Wehler, Cheryl & Hosmer, David, 2003. "Homelessness and food insecurity," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 250-272, September.
    6. E. J. Bird, "undated". "Exploring the stigma of food stamps," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1097-96, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    7. Gundersen, Craig & Jolliffe, Dean & Tiehen, Laura, 2009. "The challenge of program evaluation: When increasing program participation decreases the relative well-being of participants," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 367-376, August.
    8. Ranney, Christine K. & Gomez, Miguel I., 2010. "Food Stamps, Food Insufficiency and Health of the Elderly," Working Papers 126968, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    9. Keane, Michael & Moffitt, Robert, 1998. "A Structural Model of Multiple Welfare Program Participation and Labor Supply," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(3), pages 553-589, August.
    10. Craig Gundersen & Brent Kreider, 2008. "Food Stamps and Food Insecurity: What Can Be Learned in the Presence of Nonclassical Measurement Error?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(2), pages 352-382.
    11. Tiehen, Laura & Jolliffe, Dean & Gundersen, Craig, 2012. "Alleviating Poverty in the United States: The Critical Role of SNAP Benefits," Economic Research Report 262233, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    12. Swann, Christopher A., 2017. "Household history, SNAP participation, and food insecurity," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-9.
    13. Elton Mykerezi & Bradford Mills, 2010. "The Impact of Food Stamp Program Participation on Household Food Insecurity," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1379-1391.
    14. Davis, David & Huang, Rui, 2013. "The Effect of SNAP Benefits for Food Insecurity," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 149827, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Jun Zhang & Yanghao Wang & Steven T. Yen, 2021. "Does Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Reduce Food Insecurity among Households with Children? Evidence from the Current Population Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-15, March.
    16. Kathleen McGarry, 1995. "Factors Determining Participation of the Elderly in SSI," NBER Working Papers 5250, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. H. Hoynes & R. Moffitt, "undated". "The effectiveness of financial work incentives in DI and SSI: Lessons from other transfer programs," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1073-95, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    18. Pan, Suwen & Jensen, Helen H., 2008. "Does the Food Stamp Program Affect Food Security Status and the Composition of Food Expenditures?," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(1), pages 21-35, April.
    19. Huffman, Sonya Kostova & Jensen, Helen H., 2002. "An Empirical Analysis Of Joint Decision On Food Stamp Program, Temporary Assistance For Needy Families And Labor Force Participation," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19824, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    20. Dharmasena, Senarath & Bessler, David A. & Capps, Oral, 2016. "Food environment in the United States as a complex economic system," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 163-175.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:isu:genres:10566. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Curtis Balmer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deiasus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.