Table Of ContentPanel to Evaluate the USDA’s Methodology for Estimating
Eligibility and Participation for the WIC Program
Michele Ver Ploeg and David M. Betson, Editors
Committee on National Statistics
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
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National Research Council. (2003). Estimating Eligibility and Participation for the WIC
Program: Final Report. Panel to Evaluate the USDA’s Methodology for Estimating Eligi-
bility and Participation for the WIC Program. Michele Ver Ploeg and David M. Betson,
editors. Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences
and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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PANEL TO EVALUATE THE USDA’S METHODOLOGY
FOR ESTIMATING ELIGIBILITY AND PARTICIPATION
FOR THE WIC PROGRAM
DAVID M. BETSON (Chair), Department of Economics, University of
Notre Dame
PAUL BUESCHER, Statistical Services Branch, North Carolina State
Center for Health Statistics
ALICIA CARRIQUIRY, Department of Statistics, Iowa State University
JANET CURRIE, Department of Economics, University of California,
Los Angeles
JULIE DaVANZO, RAND, Santa Monica, California
JOHN F. GEWEKE, Department of Economics, University of Iowa
DAVID GREENBERG, Department of Economics, University of
Maryland, Baltimore County
ROBERT P. INMAN, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
JAMES LEPKOWSKI, Institute for Social Research, University of
Michigan
JOHN KARL SCHOLZ, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of
Wisconsin–Madison
CAROL WEST SUITOR, Consultant, Northfield, Vermont
MICHELE VER PLOEG, Study Director
CONSTANCE F. CITRO, Senior Program Officer
JAMIE CASEY, Research Assistant
MICHAEL SIRI, Project Assistant
v
COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS
2002–2003
JOHN E. ROLPH (Chair), Marshall School of Business, University of
Southern California
JOSEPH G. ALTONJI, Department of Economics, Yale University
ROBERT BELL, AT&T Laboratories, Florham Park, New Jersey
LAWRENCE D. BROWN, Department of Statistics, University of
Pennsylvania
ROBERT M. GROVES, Survey Research Center, University of Michigan
JOEL HOROWITZ, Department of Economics, Northwestern
University
WILLIAM KALSBEEK, Department of Biostatistics, University of North
Carolina
ARLEEN LEIBOWITZ, School of Public Policy Research, University of
California, Los Angeles
THOMAS A. LOUIS, Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins
University
VIJAYAN NAIR, Department of Statistics, University of Michigan
DARYL PREGIBON, AT&T Laboratories, Florham Park, New Jersey
KENNETH PREWITT, School of International and Public Affairs,
Columbia University
NORA CATE SCHAEFFER, Department of Sociology, University of
Wisconsin–Madison
MATTHEW D. SHAPIRO, Department of Economics, University of
Michigan
ANDREW A. WHITE, Director
vi
Acknowledgments
The Panel to Evaluate the USDA’s Methodology for the Estimating
Eligibility and Participation for the WIC Program wishes to thank the many
people and institutions that contributed to the preparation of the final
report. The panel especially wishes to thank the staff of the Food and Nu-
trition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)—Jay
Hirschman, Cindy Long, Dawn Aldridge, and Stephanie Schmidt, for their
willingness to answer the panel’s numerous questions on the rules and regu-
lations of the WIC program. We also wish to acknowledge David
Smallwood for his role as a liaison with the Economic Research Service
(ERS), the funding agency within USDA for this project.
As chair of the panel, I would like to thank my fellow panel members
for their commitment and patience through the numerous drafts of this
report. Their timely and constructive involvement has made this report
possible. While every member of the panel contributed to the final report, I
would like to thank panel members Janet Currie and Karl Scholz for con-
ducting numerous simulations and calculations using the Survey of Income
and Program Participation (SIPP) that appear in this report. I would also
like to thank Alicia Carriquiry and Carol Suitor for calculating the preva-
lence of nutritional risk under alternative definitions using the Continuing
Survey of Food Intake by Individuals.
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To prepare and draft this final report, the panel convened two meet-
ings. The first meeting after the release of the panel’s interim report was
held on March 19 and 20, 2002, in Washington, DC. During the open
session of this meeting, the panel heard two presentations of papers it had
commissioned. One paper, by Alison Jacknowitz of RAND, reviewed cur-
rent rates of breastfeeding among new mothers and data for estimating
these rates. The second paper, by Aaron Yelowitz of the University of Ken-
tucky, examined variability in family income around the time of a child’s
birth. The second meeting of the panel was a two-day retreat held June 17
and 18, 2002, at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. At this closed meeting, the
panel finalized the conclusions and recommendations of the report draft.
Central to the work of the panel was the original examination of data
from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and SIPP. Linda Giannarelli,
Joyce Morton, Paul Johnson, and Laura Wheaton of the Urban Institute
assisted the panel’s examination of the CPS data and output from the TRIM
model. The panel would also like to thank Sheila Zedlewski of the Urban
Institute for making this work possible. The panel would like to thank
Molly Dahl, University of Wisconsin–Madison, for the assistance she pro-
vided the panel in its examination of the SIPP data.
A staff that was both professional and a pleasure to work with assisted
the panel. The panel’s work could not have been completed without the
admirable assistance of Michele Ver Ploeg, the study director. Her initial
drafts of many of the sections of the report and attention to the overall
management of the project were invaluable to the panel. We would also
like to thank Constance Citro, senior program officer at the National Re-
search Council, for her sound advice and counsel during the drafting of the
final report. Finally, the panel acknowledges the able research and project
assistance provided by Jamie Casey and Michael Siri.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for
their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with proce-
dures approved by the National Research Council (NRC) Report Review
Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid
and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its pub-
lished reports as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets
institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the
study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confi-
dential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank
the following individuals for the review of this report: Howard Chernick,
Department of Economics, Hunter College, and the Graduate Center, City
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
University of New York; Barbara Devaney, Mathematica Policy Research,
Princeton, NJ; Peter Germanis, American Enterprise Institute, Washing-
ton, DC; Gordon H. Lewis, Heinz School of Public Policy and Manage-
ment, Carnegie Mellon University; Arleen A. Liebowitz, Department of
Policy Studies, University of California, Los Angeles; Randall J. Olsen, Cen-
ter for Human Resource Research, Ohio State University; and Virginia A.
Stallings, Joseph R. Stokes Research Institute, Nutrition Section, The
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive
comments that greatly improved the final report, they were not asked to
endorse the conclusions and recommendations nor did they see the final
draft of the report prior to its release. The review of this report was overseen
by Robert Moffitt, Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University.
Appointed by the National Research Council he was responsible for mak-
ing certain that an independent examination of this report was conducted
in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments
were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report
rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
David M. Betson, Chair
Panel to Evaluate the USDA’s
Methodology for Estimating Eligibility
and Participation for the WIC Program
