Food Stamps and America’s Poorest

Dean Jolliffe, Juan Margitic () and Martin Ravallion

No 26025, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The paper provides the first assessment of: (i) America’s progress in lifting the lower bound—the floor—of the distribution of real income; (ii) whether the country’s largest antipoverty program, SNAP (“food stamps”), helped do so. An operational method of estimating the floor is implemented on micro survey data spanning 30 years, with various robustness and significance tests. SNAP partially compensated the poorest, and helped stabilize the floor. Nonetheless, the floor has been sinking over the last 30 years. The efficiency of SNAP in lifting the floor has declined over time. Full coverage of the poorest would lift the floor appreciable.

JEL-codes: I32 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
Note: DEV PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Dean Jolliffe & Juan Margitic & Martin Ravallion & Laura Tiehen, 2024. "Food stamps and America's poorest," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol 106(4), pages 1380-1409.

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Journal Article: Food stamps and America's poorest (2024)
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