Premium
Dietary Effects of the Food Stamp Program
Author(s) -
Devaney Barbara,
Moffitt Robert
Publication year - 1991
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 - 10.2307/1242896
Subject(s) - food stamp program , food stamps , selection bias , ordinary least squares , cash , selection (genetic algorithm) , economics , econometrics , engel curve , food consumption , nutrient , estimation , consumption (sociology) , agricultural economics , statistics , biology , mathematics , computer science , ecology , social science , management , artificial intelligence , sociology , welfare , price index , market economy , macroeconomics
Based on data from the 1979–80 Survey of Food Consumption in Low‐Income Households, this paper estimates the effects of changes in cash income and the food stamp benefit on household nutrient availability, while controlling for two potential sources of selection bias. The major finding of the empirical analysis is that the estimated dietary effects of changes in food stamp benefits are considerably larger than those resulting from changes in cash income, with estimates of the ratios of the MPC for the food stamp benefit to the cash‐income MPC ranging from three to seven across nutrients. No significant evidence of selection bias was found, and the estimated dietary effects of food stamp benefits from the selection bias models are similar to those from the basic model estimated by ordinary least squares regression.