Economic Determinants and Dietary Consequences of Food Insecurity in the United States

This paper reviews recent research on the economic determinants and dietary consequences of food insecurity and hunger in the United States. The new Current Population Study (CPS) food insecurity and hunger measure shows that hunger rates decline sharply with rising incomes. Despite this strong relationship, confirmed in other national datasets, a one-to-one correspondence between poverty-level incomes and hunger does not exist. In 1995, 13.1%...