Ribar, David C., Marilyn Edelhoch, and Qiduan Liu. 2008. “Watching the Clocks: The Role of Food Stamp Recertification and TANF Time Limits in Caseload Dynamics.” Journal of Human Resources 43(1): 208–239.
We use administrative data to examine how “clock” policies—program time limits and recurring deadlines for confirming eligibility—affected participation in South Carolina’s TANF and Food Stamp Programs from 1996-2003. South Carolina’s TANF program limits most families to two years of benefits in any ten-year period; so, recipients began exhausting their eligibility as early as 1998. The state’s Food Stamp Program sets regular recertification intervals that can be distinguished from other calendar effects and increased these intervals after October 2002. We find that the two-year time limit reduced TANF caseloads and that the longer recertification intervals increased food stamp caseloads.
David C. Ribar is a professor of economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a research affiliate of the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany. Marilyn Edelhoch is the Director of Research and Evaluation in the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SC DSS). Qiduan Liu is a senior research associate in the Institute for Families in Society at the University of South Carolina. This article is drawn from a longer report (Ribar, Edelhoch, and Liu 2006a). The data used in this article were obtained from the SC DSS. Other scholars may obtain the data by contacting that organization. The authors of this article will assist other scholars in that process. The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under cooperative agreement number 43-3AEM-1-80133. They thank Michael Wiseman for his help and advice and Sandy Allen, Linda Martin, and Julie Taylor for providing detailed information about public assistance policies in South Carolina. They thank Elizabeth Dagata, Karen Hamrick, Constance Newman, Chris Ruhm, and Parke Wilde and participants at numerous conferences and seminars for useful suggestions. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the USDA or the SC DSS.