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An Analysis of the Market for Food Stamps
Author(s) -
Bryant W. Keith
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1238718
Subject(s) - citation , library science , sociology , computer science
THIs paper represents an attempt to analyze the Food Stamp Program (FSP) not as a farm program or a welfare program but rather as a market for a publicly supplied good. The analysis, therefore, concentrates on the forces determining the demand for and the supply of food stamps, and is conducted in an attempt to contribute to an economic theory of public and non-profit sectors of the economy, a subject neglected by economists until recently. The analysis of the FSP is not important in itself, for it is one of those programs the poor rightly claim has been studied too much and changed too little. Hoover and Maddox [4], Kotz [7], Nelson [8], Paarlberg [11], Segal [12], and Steiner [13], among others, have made studies of the various aspects of this and other food programs. Instead, it is intended to be a case study, because the FSP is representative of a large number of public and non-profit activities. The FSP is characterized by a bureau which operates the program and which faces not only a legislature from which it obtains an annual appropriation but also the eligible households to which it sells the service it produces-namely, food stamps. Colleges, some hospitals, child adoption agencies, and YMCA's are among the diverse activities and institutions which share these characteristics.