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The Impact of Food Stamps on Food Expenditures: Rejection of the Traditional Model
Author(s) -
Senauer Ben,
Young Nathan
Publication year - 1986
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 - 10.2307/1241647
Subject(s) - allotment , tobit model , food stamps , coupon , consumer expenditure , food stamp program , economics , agricultural economics , cash , business , public economics , econometrics , finance , aggregate expenditure , welfare , market economy
For food stamp recipients whose normal food purchases exceed their coupon allotment, the traditional economic model predicts that the impact of food stamps on food spending will be the same as for an equal cash transfer. The Tobit analysis in this study indicates that, for these recipients, food stamps have a substantially greater impact on at‐home food expenditures than an equal amount of cash income. These results reject the traditional model. Several possible explanations of this behavior are discussed.