Spatial Food Stamp Program Participation Dynamics in U.S. Counties

Understanding the factors that account for differences in food stamp expenditure dynamics over space is important not only for potentially improving public policy but also for clarifying the relative roles of factors that are and are not under the control of welfare recipients in determining their ability to move off welfare rolls. This study contributes to the literature by including a better measure of employment opportunities for welfare recipients, allowing for potential endogeneity in the unemployment rate, and by correcting for spatial dependence bias that may result from the clustering of poverty in pockets.