The Food Stamp Benefit Formula: Implications for Empirical Research on Food Demand

Parke E. Wilde

Elsewhere No. (0209), February 2002

To discover the Food Stamp Program's effect on food spending, researchers often rely on regression models that require some source of independent variation in food stamp benefits. This article examines three sources of independent variation, which appear promising at first look: (a) variation in household size, (b) variation in deductions from gross income, and (c) receipt of minimum or maximum food stamp benefits. Based on the results, the article raises concern about popular regression approaches to studying the Food Stamp Program.

Keywords: food stamp program, fsp, benefit formula, food demand, food expenditure, multicollinearity

Get this document in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

Updated date: February 2002