An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
This paper examines sub-state spatial and temporal variation in misreporting of participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) using several years of the American Community Survey linked to SNAP administrative records from New York (2008–2010) and Texas (2006–2009). I calculate county false-negative (FN) and false-positive (FP) rates for each year of observation and find that, within a given state and year, there is substantial heterogeneity in FN rates across counties. In addition, I find evidence that FN rates (but not FP rates) persist over time within counties. This persistence in FN rates is strongest among more populous counties, suggesting that when noise from sampling variation is not an issue, some counties have consistently high FN rates while others have consistently low FN rates. This finding is important for understanding how misreporting might bias estimates of sub-state SNAP participation rates, changes in those participation rates, and effects of program participation.
Share
Some content on this site is available in several different electronic formats. Some of the files may require a plug-in or additional software to view.
Top