Are People Ashamed of Paying with Food Stamps?
研究检验了“福利污名”导致食品券购买食品效用低于现金的假说，发现该假说无法解释美国食品券边际消费倾向高于现金收入的现象，实证结果否定了其三个预测中的两个。
We evaluate the claim that marginal ‘welfare stigma’causes a dollar of food to provide less utility if bought with food stamps rather than cash, and that this explains why, in the United States, the marginal propensity to consume food out of food stamps is larger than that out of income. This hypothesis has been advanced to explain the so‐called ‘cash‐out puzzle’: the empirical observation that the marginal propensity to consume food out of food stamps is much higher than that out of income, even for households who spend some cash income on food. We develop a theoretical model to identify the restrictions imposed by the hypothesis that the puzzle is indeed caused by such stigma. Using data from San Diego County, we find that two of the three predictions of the marginal stigma model are violated. These results cast serious doubt on the marginal stigma hypothesis.