Estimating the Value of an In-Kind Transfer: The Case of Food Stamps

The value of one in-kind transfer, food stamps, is estimated by evaluating the experience of an actual conversion from stamps to cash in Puerto Rico in 1982. The evidence indicates that the cashout of the stamps had no detectable influence on food expenditures. The explanation partly lies in the distribution of expenditures, for the stamps were inframarginal for most recipients. However, some evidence indicates that trafficking in stamps was widespread as well, including indirect evidence from estimation of the piecewise-linear constraint model.