Do Economic Resources Matter?

research examines the relationship between work disability and food insecurity, and tests whether the positive association between disability and food insecurity is accounted for by two mechanisms: economic resources and/or competing consumption needs. A sample (N=6,997) is chosen from the 1999 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) with over 1,200 households headed by people with disabilities. Findings support both mechanisms but depending on the levels of food insecurity and the types of family economic resources, their success at explaining the relationship of disability with food insecurity varies. In addition, we find that household assets are more effective than income in protecting people with disabilities against food insecurity. Implications for disability policy and food assistance programs are discussed. Key words: disability, food insecurity, income, assets, economic resources Food insecurity is still prevalent in the U.S. (Alaimo, Briefel, Frongillo, & Olson, 1998; Nord, Andrews, & Carlson, 2008). According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Bickel, Nord, Price, Hamilton, & Cook, 2000), households are food insecure if they have “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways ” (p. 6). The latest household food insecurity report (Nord et al., 2008) shows that, at the national level, 11.1 % of households (13 million households