Changes in Safety Net Use during the Great Recession
American Economic Review
vol. 105,
no. 5, May 2015
(pp. 161-65)
Abstract
We examine how participation in social safety net programs differs by income-to-poverty levels, and how that relationship changed after the Great Recession. We define income-to-poverty based on the average of 2 years of merged CPS data, and investigate program participation among households with income less than 300 percent of poverty. We find changes in both the level and distribution of safety-net program participation during the Great Recession, with SNAP expanding most at the bottom, the EITC expanding most in the middle, and UI expanding most at the top of the income ranges that we investigate; TANF did not expand.Citation
Anderson, Patricia M., Kristin F. Butcher, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach. 2015. "Changes in Safety Net Use during the Great Recession." American Economic Review, 105 (5): 161-65. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20151056Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
- H24 Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies; includes inheritance and gift taxes
- I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
- I32 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
- I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs