New Social Program Participation During the Great Recession: The Case of SNAP*

Abstract

Objectives -It is unknown if the explosion in SNAP usage during the Great Recession was due to an inflow of new participants or instead because former participants cycled back onto the program. It is also unknown if the profiles of new and return participants differed on a set of core demographic characteristics including race/ethnicity, gender, education, age, household configuration and location.Methods -I examine the complete adult SNAP participation histories for a nationally representative cross-section of 7,680 individuals at the end of the Great Recession. Data are from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics with observations spanning the period 1968-2010.Results -A large number of adult SNAP participants used the program for the first time during the Great Recession. New participants were not solely young