If at First You Don't Succeed: Applying for and Staying on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

We examine households' applications to and participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) using administrative records from South Carolina covering the period from October 1996 until November 2007. We conduct multivariate analyses, modeling application resolutions with multinomial logit specifications where the possible outcomes are acceptance, denial due to income ineligibility, denial due to a failure to provide sufficient information, and denial for other reasons. For cases with successful applications, we model the durations of participation spells using competing-risk hazard specifications that distinguish among exits that result from missed recertifications, financial ineligibility, incomplete or missing information, and other reasons. The application and hazard outcomes depend on past program behavior and observed characteristics. The results indicate that a household's application and participation history affect its subsequent application success and program tenure.