Gundersen, Craig, and Brent Kreider. 2008. “Food Stamps and Food Insecurity: What Can Be Learned in the Presence of Nonclassical Measurement Error?” Journal of Human Resources 43(2): 352–382.
Policymakers have been puzzled to observe that food stamp households appear more likely to be food insecure than observationally similar eligible nonparticipating households. We reexamine this issue allowing for nonclassical reporting errors in food stamp participation and food insecurity. Extending the literature on partially identified parameters, we introduce a nonparametric framework that makes transparent what can be known about conditional probabilities when a binary outcome and conditioning variable are both subject to nonclassical measurement error. We find that the food insecurity paradox hinges on assumptions about the data that are not supported by the previous food stamp participation literature.
Craig Gundersen is an associate professor in human development and family studies with a courtesy appointment in economics. Iowa State University. Brent Kreider is an associate professor of economics, Iowa State University. This research is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Economic Research Service (ERS), and the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP). The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Annual Meetings of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), the ERS/IRP Small Grants Research Workshop, the Annual Meetings of the Population Association of America (PAA), the Annual Meetings of the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI), and the Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) Conference. The authors thank participants at those venues and, in particular, Mark Nord, Hugette Sun, and Sandi Hoffereth. They also thank two anonymous referees for excellent comments. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning October 2008 through September 2011 from Craig Gundersen, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, 74 LeBaron, Ames, IA 50011 <cggunder@iastate.edu>.