Does the Food Stamp Program Affect Food Security Status and the Composition of Food Expenditures?

The paper considers interaction among participation in the Food Stamp Program (FSP), food security status and the composition of food expenditures. A Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System with a bootstrapping twoï¾–step method of estimation is applied to data from the Current Population Surveyï¾–Food Security Supplement data and used to estimate the model and account for endogeneity between the FSP participation and food insecurity. The results show that FSP participation is endogenously related with food security status and significantly affects total food expenditure and food away from home expenditures.