COVID-19 Working Paper: Distribution and Examination of Coronavirus Food Assistance Program Payments and Forgivable Paycheck Protection Program Loans at the State Level in 2020
Government payments to the farm sector were a record-high $45.7 billion in calendar year 2020. COVID-related payments from two programs—USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) at $23.5 billion and Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) at $6.0 billion—accounted for nearly two-thirds of those 2020 payments. This report analyzes the distribution of direct Government payments relative to cash receipts in calendar year 2020 using Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients. We find that USDA COVID-related payments from CFAP relative to cash receipts at the State level were closely aligned with distribution of cash receipts.
Details
Title
COVID-19 Working Paper: Distribution and Examination of Coronavirus Food Assistance Program Payments and Forgivable Paycheck Protection Program Loans at the State Level in 2020
Record Identifier
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/340041
Language
English
Total Pages
18
Note
This working paper uses data from USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) reports of direct Government payments at the national and State level in the ERS Farm Income and Wealth Statistics data product. In 2020, Government payments at the State level were differentiated between pandemic assistance (both USDA and non-USDA) and payments from other programs, including those from Farm Bill programs. In this analysis, non-USDA pandemic assistance includes only the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and direct Government payments are direct farm-related payments from the federal Government. The working paper uses State-level data to compare State pandemic- and non-pandemic assistance payments relative to State agricultural cash receipts by constructing Lorenz curves and calculating Gini indices to examine how closely aligned payments were relative to cash receipts. We also compared PPP payments relative to hired-labor expenses. To compare 2020 direct farm-related Government payments with historical averages, we adjusted values for inflation using the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Gross Domestic Product Price Index (BEA, API series code: A191RG) rebased to 2020, from the ERS February 2022 release of the Farm Sector Income and Wealth Statistics data product.
Series Statement
Administrative Publication No. 116
