This report was prepared in response to a request from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It summarizes the discussions at a February 1998 workshop convened by the Committee on National Statistics; the Board on Children, Youth, and Families; and the Food and Nutrition Board. The fiscal year 1998 (FY1998) appropriations bill for USDA gave ERS responsibility for all research and evaluation studies on USDA food assistance programs. The bill provided $18 million to fund these studies, an increase from $7 million in FY1997. ERS asked the Committee on National Statistics for assistance in identifying new areas of research and data collection and in further improving the evaluation studies of food assistance programs. By bringing together many who work on evaluation of food assistance programs, policy analysis, survey methods, nutrition, child nutrition and child development, outcome measurement, and state welfare programs, the issues presented and discussed at the workshop provided ERS with information that could be used to develop a framework for their research program.

Extract: The Food Stamp Program was made part of permanent legislation in 1964. Studies of the economic impact of the program have been conducted by scientists in government, universities, and private research agencies. Since the program is relatively new, the existence of many of these studies is not generally known. This bibliography contains brief descriptions of the major empirical studies completed prior to 1974. Studies included relate to performance aspects of the various food stamp programs which have been tried. It is hoped that the bibliography will be helpful to scientists interested in conducting food stamp studies, and to policymakers. (Author)