The effects of the macroeconomy and welfare reform on food stamp caseloads

Since 1994 there has been an unprecedented decline in the number of people receving food stamp benefits. From a record high of 27.5 million in 1994, the number of food stamp recipients fell over 30% to 18.0 million by mid 1999. Innovative changes in the delivery of food stamp benefits have been taking place with the introduction of Electronic Benefit Transfers (EBT). That these many economic and policy changes occurred at the same time as the substantial caseload decline suggests that a combination of factors led to the decline, but their simultaneity confounds the ability of the researcher to easily decompose the caseload decline. In this research we attempt to quantify the relative impacts of the macroeconomy and welfare reform on food stamp caseloads.