This paper explores why many low-income households do not participate in the Food Stamp Program. By analyzing detailed income and asset data from a sample of low-income households, we find that many households that appear to be eligible for food stamps in fact are not eligible. By conducting an experiment designed to investigate the role of information on participation in the Food Stamp Program, we observe that ignorance about the program contributes to nonparticipation. However, there is evidence that knowledge about the program is endogenous-households generally avail themselves of information about the program when the anticipated benefits of doing so are large.

Beth Osborne Daponte is affiliated with the Office of Child Development at the University Center for Social and Urban Research, University of Pittsburgh; Seth Sanders is an associate professor and Lowell Taylor is a professor of economics at the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University. The authors thank Barbara Murock and Bob Braun for their valuable assistance with this project. Hunger Services Network of Western Pennsylvania shared materials and knowledge of Food Stamp enrollment assistance. The data collection effort was undertaken with Gordon Lewis, whom the authors would also like to thank, and was supported by a grant from the Vira Heinz Foundation (made on behalf of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank). The follow-up research was funded by a grant from Food and Nutrition Services of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The data used in this paper can be obtained from January 2000 through December 2003 from Lowell Taylor, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and management, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.