Bias in Food Stamps Participation Estimates in the Presence of Misreporting Error

Abstract

This paper focuses on how survey misreporting of food stamp receipt can bias demographic estimation of program participation. Food stamps is a federally funded program which subsidizes the nutrition of low-income households. In order to improve the reach of this program, studies on low program participation varies by demographic groups have been conducted using census data. Census data are subject to a lot of misreporting error, both under-reporting and over-reporting, which can bias the estimates. The impact of misreporting error on estimate bias is examined by calculating food stamp participation rates, misreporting rates, and bias for select household characteristics (covariates).