Abstract
The government sponsors over 20 voluntary cash and in-kind programs to assist needy persons. To measure program effectiveness, characteristics of the target population, and the impact of program reforms, the government requires a survey that supports estimation of the size and composition of the eligible population. This paper critiques the utility of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) for measuring eligibility under 5 of these need-tested programs. SIPP offers unique advantages over other surveys: monthly accounting period, periodic measures of assets and expenses, and repeated measures of household composition, program unit composition, and income from over 50 different sources. SIPP has disadvantages as well: small sample, omission of some determinants of program eligibility, lack of repetition of key data elements, and data that have been subject to errors and delays. The small sample size is the most crucial barrier to wide-spread use of SIPP for program analysis.
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