IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/evarev/v17y1993i1p4-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The War On Fraud and Error in the Food Stamp Program

Author

Listed:
  • Georg E. Matt

    (San Diego State University)

  • Thomas D. Cook

    (Northwestern University)

Abstract

President Carter proclaimed a war on fraud and error in the food stamp program as part of a more general concern with the mismanagement of social programs. He succeeded in reversing the increase in the number of households classified as receiving both too many and too few food stamps, and he also increased the percentage of eligible households that actually received stamps. An even more visible war against fraud and abuse was pursued in the first Reagan administration. This resulted in a decrease in the number of cases being paid too much, but no such decrease in the number paid too little. The percentage of eligible households receiving food stamps also decreased, and there was a rapid increase in the number of fraud cases detected and prosecuted. However, conflicts emerged in the first Reagan term between federal and state governments about who should bear the financial costs of the war on error and fraud. The second Reagan term resulted in few changes in error and fraud compared to what was found at the end of his first term, and the level of rhetoric about "fraud and abuse" decreased markedly. However, the data available on fraud and abuse deal only with detected frauds. Hence we cannot say with any certainty whether fraud actually decreased m the food stamp program during either the Carter or the Reagan years.

Suggested Citation

  • Georg E. Matt & Thomas D. Cook, 1993. "The War On Fraud and Error in the Food Stamp Program," Evaluation Review, , vol. 17(1), pages 4-26, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:17:y:1993:i:1:p:4-26
    DOI: 10.1177/0193841X9301700102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X9301700102
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0193841X9301700102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blaylock, James R. & Smallwood, David M., 1984. "Reasons For Nonparticipation In The Food Stamp Program," Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Allin, Susan & Beebout, Harold, 1989. "Determinants of Participation in the Food Stamp Program: A Review of the Literature," USDA Miscellaneous 338578, United States Department of Agriculture.
    2. Julie Janssens & Natascha Van Mechelen, 2017. "Who is to Blame? An Overview of the Factors Contributing to the Non-Take-Up of Social Rights," Working Papers 1708, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. Burstein, Nancy R. & Hamilton, William L. & Fox, Mary Kay & Price, Cristofer & Battaglia, Michael P., 2005. "Assessing the Food Security and Diet Quality Impacts of FNS Program Participation: Final Report," USDA Miscellaneous 344961, United States Department of Agriculture.
    4. Sheena McConnell & Lucia Nixon, "undated". "Reaching the Working Poor and the Poor Elderly: Report on Literature Review and Data Analyses," Mathematica Policy Research Reports b003482dbdec4519b7ebf5d9e, Mathematica Policy Research.
    5. Philip Gleason & Peter Schochet & Robert Moffitt, 1998. "The Dynamics of Food Stamp Program Participation in the Early 1990s," Mathematica Policy Research Reports ab95304cd2204323a950b50dd, Mathematica Policy Research.
    6. B. O. Daponte, "undated". "Private versus public relief: Utilization of food pantries versus food stamps among poor households in Allegheny County, Pennsylvannia," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1091-96, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    7. repec:mpr:mprres:2518 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Sheena McConnell & Michael Ponza, 1999. "The Reaching the Working Poor and Poor Elderly Study: What We Learned and Recommendations for Future Research," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 7b7b059aa2264425921db3e0b, Mathematica Policy Research.
    9. repec:mpr:mprres:1855 is not listed on IDEAS

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:17:y:1993:i:1:p:4-26. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.