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Why Are So Many Americans On Food Stamps? The Role Of The Economy, Policy, And Demographics, James P. Ziliak
Why Are So Many Americans On Food Stamps? The Role Of The Economy, Policy, And Demographics, James P. Ziliak
University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series
1 in 7 Americans received assistance from SNAP in FY2012, which is a rate 141 percent higher than in FY2000, but only 59 percent higher than in FY1980. In this chapter I describe the socioeconomic and policy climate in recent decades that had bearing on SNAP participation, along with a formal empirical analysis of those determinants and detailed simulations of the relative contributions of the economy, policy, and demographics to changes in SNAP participation over time. The results suggest that SNAP is operating effectively as an automatic fiscal stabilizer—nearly 50 percent of the increase in participation from 2007-2011 is due …