Why Do Low-Income Households not Use Food Stamps? Evidence from an Experiment
通过分析低收入家庭的收入和资产数据，发现许多看似符合条件的家庭实际上并不符合食品券资格；一项实验表明，对项目缺乏了解是导致不参与的原因，但信息获取是内生的，家庭在预期收益大时才会主动了解。
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.