RELATIVE UNDERNUTRITION IN PUERTO-RICO UNDER ALTERNATIVE FOOD ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS

In the early 1980s, Puerto Rico experienced a conversion from the Food Stamp Program (FSP) to the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) and a s evere recession. To compare relative undernutrition in Puerto Rico in 1977 and 1984 stochastic dominance methods and statistical inference p rocedures are applied to nutrient distributions. To separate the effec t of the recession from the effect of converting food coupons to cash benefits, a multiple regression model of nutrient consumption is also estimated. In the dominance comparisons, every improvement in nutritio n status between 1977 and 1984 is statistically significant at the low est quintile, while no case of worsening undernutrition is significant at the lowest quintile. The multiple regression model provides some e vidence that the conversion from food coupons to cash might have reduc ed nutrition status in the lowest quintile. But a larger proportion of food assistance was allocated to low-income households under the NAP than under the FSP. No evidence of significant income effects on under nutrition is found.