摘要：The Food Stamp Program saw an unprecedented decline in participation from 27.5 mil-lion participants in 1994 to 18.2 million participants in 1999. A strong economy andchanges in social welfare programs drove this change. An econometric model withState-level data calculated that 35 percent of the caseload decline from 1994 to 1998was associated with changing economic conditions and 12 percent with program reformand political variables. Household-level data from the Current Population Survey leadto the conclusion that 28 percent of the total change in participation was associated witha decrease in the number of people with low income (below 130 percent of the povertyline) and 55 percent was due to a decline in the proportion of low-income people whoparticipate.
