Nearly 15% of all U.S. households and 40% of near-poor households were food insecure in 2009. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the cornerstone of federal food assistance programs and serves as the first line of defense against food-related hardship. This paper measures the effectiveness of SNAP in reducing food insecurity using an instrumental variables approach to control for selection. Our results suggest that receipt of SNAP benefits reduces the likelihood of being food insecure by roughly 30% and reduces the likelihood of being very food insecure by 20%.

This paper reviews the literature on poverty dynamics in the United States. It surveys the most prevalent data, theories, and methods used to answer three key questions: How likely are people to enter, exit, and reenter poverty? How long do people remain in poverty? And what events are associated with entering and exiting poverty? The paper then analyzes the combined findings of the literature, discussing overarching patterns of poverty dynamics, differences among demographic groups, and how poverty probabilities, duration, and events have changed over time. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings and avenues for future research.

Objective. This article examines how events-such as changes in household composition, employment status, disability status, and economic conditions-affect poverty entries and exits. We also examine whether the role these events play in poverty transitions differs in the pre-and post-welfare-reform periods. Methods. The analysis uses discrete-time multivariate hazard models along with monthly, longitudinal data from the 1988, 1990, and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Results. Analyses show that many events are related to the likelihood of entering and exiting poverty. Of the trigger events examined, individuals living in households that experience a loss or gain of employment are the most likely to enter and exit poverty. We also find that changes in employment are more important in the 1996 to 1999 time period-after welfare reform-than in the 1988 to 1992 time period-prior to welfare reform. Finally, changes in household composition, disability status, and educational attainment are found to play a role in throwing people into poverty and helping them exit from poverty in both time periods. Conclusions. There is no single path into or out of poverty, suggesting that multiple policies can be considered to help alleviate poverty.The U.S. poverty rate fell from over 15 percent in 1993-one of its highest levels in three decades, to 11.3 percent in 2000-its lowest level in two decades. 1

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THE URBAN INSTITUTE Family events, such as a job loss, the onset of health limitations, and a change in family structure, can adversely affect economic well-being. The impact of these events may be mitigated if the family holds assets that it can draw on to maintain consumption and material well-being. This study examines the extent to which families that hold assets are better able to maintain their level of material well-being in the face of adverse events, compared with families that do not hold assets. In essence, this work looks at the role of assets in families' economic and material stability, a potential benefit of asset-building programs for low-income families. We use the 1996 and 2001 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to address two key research questions: (1) What is the relationship between events and material hardship? and (2) Given that an event occurs, do families with assets have lower levels of material hardship? We answer the questions by examining the relationship between events and material hardship and by looking at the relationship between asset holdings and material hardship, given that an event occurs. We also assess the relationships between adverse events, material hardship, and asset holdings for families in different parts of the income distribution. This study builds on the substantial literature that examines income volatility (e.g.