Volume 20, Number 3 (Summer) 1985
MacDonald, Maurice. 1985. "The Role of Multiple Benefits in Maintaining the Social Safety Net: The Case of Food Stamps." Journal of Human Resources 20(3):421-436.
Panel data from the 1979 Income Survey Development Program are used to describe the adequacy of the social welfare safety net and the population it protected prior to the 1981 round of welfare cuts. The analysis centers on food stamp recipients and shows that while some food stamp recipients had incomes exceeding 130 percent of the poverty line, many others remained below the poverty line even with food stamps and other program benefits. The paper closes by discussing the implications of the analysis for benefit adequacy and the interaction with state-provided welfare benefits.
The author is Professor of Consumer Science. University of
Wisconsin-Madison. He is also affiliated with the University's Institute for
Research on Poverty.
The data for this study were prepared under contract with the
Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. The interpretations
here represent only the author's views. Food and Nutrition Service staff members
who contributed substantially to the development of the data include Christine
Schmidt, Abigail Nichols, Julie Kresge, and Judi Reitman. The author would also
like to thank Elizabeth Uhr, Sheldon Danziger, and an anonymous referee for
helpful suggestions.
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