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Abstract
Excerpts from the Executive Summary: This report reviews the literature on the estimated rates of participation in the Food Stamp Program (FSP), the only public assistance program without categorical restrictions that is available to low-income households. The estimated rates reported in the literature vary substantially--from 24 percent to 80 percent--depending on the measure, data source, and methodology employed. To offer insight into how to interpret these disparities, this review critically evaluates how the estimated rates differ, why they differ, and how they have changed over time. Now is an appropriate time to undertake such a review because a new data set, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), contains more. and more detailed, information necessary to estimate with precision the number of FSP eligibles than any of the data sets previously employed. This report reviews the estimates of individual, household, and benefit rates of participation among the total FSP-eligible population. It focuses on the data and methodological issues causing the rates to vary and offers some guidance for those attempting to interpret the diverse rates.