Food Stamp Program Participation and Food Insecurity: An Instrumental Variables Approach

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8276.2007.01045.x

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Wiley InterScience

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

Volume 90 Issue 1, Pages 117 - 132

Published Online: 9 Aug 2007

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Food Stamp Program Participation and Food Insecurity: An Instrumental Variables Approach

Steven T. Yen ¹ , Margaret Andrews ¹ , Zhuo Chen ¹ , and David B. Eastwood ¹

¹ Steven Yen is associate professor and David Eastwood is professor emeritus of agricultural economics at the University of Tennessee. Margaret Andrews is the Assistant Deputy Director for Food Stamp Research in the Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program at the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Zhuo Chen is visiting scholar, Chicago Center of Excellence in Health Promotion Economics, University of Chicago, and former postdoctoral research associate at the University of Tennessee.

The authors thank, without implicating, Lung-Fei Lee for his help at an initial stage of this study, David Ribar, Mark Prell, three anonymous reviewers, and seminar participants at National Taiwan University and the 2007 Far Eastern Meeting of the Econometric Society for helpful comments and suggestions. Craig Gundersen provided data used in his earlier research. Funding was provided by Cooperative Agreement 43-3AEM-3-80103 with the USDA-ERS. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the USDA.

KEYWORDS

censored dependent variable • food insecurity • food stamp program • instrumental variables • National Food Stamp Program Survey

ABSTRACT

The relationship between Food Stamp Program (FSP) participation and household food insecurity (FI) is investigated using data from the 1996–1997 National Food Stamp Program Survey. Endogeneity of FSP participation is accommodated with an instrumental variables approach. In contrast to other findings reported in the literature, results suggest participation in the FSP reduces the severity of FI. Sociodemographic variables play important roles in FSP participation and FI. Underreporting of FSP participation and limited observations of food-insecure households in previous studies may have also been factors.

[Received June 2006;
accepted April 2007.]

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1467-8276.2007.01045.x About DOI