Determinants of Participation in the Food Stamp Program: A Review of the Literature

Excerpts from the Executive Summary: While it is unreasonable to expect that all eligible households will participate in the Food Stamp Program (FSP), the level of participation among eligible households, or the participation rate, has become a commonly used criterion for evaluating the performance of social programs. Recent studies based on the best available data estimate that 60 percent of eligible households participate in the FSP. The fact that a significant proportion of eligible households do not participate has led to considerable interest in the reasons for nonparticipation. This report reviews the literature on nonparticipation, focusing on several specific questions: * What are the principal reasons eligible persons or households do not participate in the FSP? * How do participation rates vary across different types of households? What are the reasons for that variation? * On what basis do eligible households make their decisions regarding participation? How might changes in program structure or operations influence those decisions