| By: |
Craig Gundersen (Iowa State University);
David C. Ribar (George Washington University and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: |
This study uses data from the December 2003 Food Security Supplement of the
CPS to compare the food insufficiency and insecurity measures with objective
measures of food expenditures and objective and subjective measures of food
needs. The study examines the general relationships between these variables
and finds that reports of food hardships are positively associated with food
expenditures and negatively associated with needs. The study goes on to
examine reports of food hardships at low very levels of food expenditures,
where we conjecture that most people should experience food problems. When
expenditures are scaled by an objective measure of needs, there is no point
along the expenditure distribution where more than half of the survey
respondents report experiencing being food insufficient or insecure. However,
when expenditures are scaled by a subjective threshold, we observe
near-universal reporting of food problems at low levels of expenditures. The
findings indicate that the food insufficiency and insecurity measures each
incorporate a large subjective component, which limits the usefulness of the
measures for comparing the extent of food hardships across populations or over
time or evaluating the effects of assistance programs. |
| Keywords: |
food insecurity, food insufficiency, expenditures, non-parametric regression |
| JEL: |
I3 |
| Date: |
2005–05 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1594&r=agr |