Food insecurity in the PSID: A comparison with the levels, trends, and determinants in the CPS, 1999-2017

Food insecurity, defined as a condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food, is a widely used measure of well-being in the U.S. The survey module in the Current Population Survey (CPS) that is used to generate the official U.S. food insecurity measure is also included on multiple waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), offering the first opportunity to answer key research questions on the persistence of food insecurity within and across generations. We assess the validity of the food insecurity measure in the PSID by comparing it to the CPS. We find that, although estimated food insecurity rates in the PSID are lower than those in the CPS, the trends over time in the two datasets are similar, and the rates converge from the 1999-2003 period to the 2015-17 period. Our findings lend credence to the use of the PSID for food insecurity research.