Although it would be of great interest to isolate the contribution of the cutbacks in the
various public assistance programs to the estimated crowdout effect, such an analysis is
empirically difficult because there is a great deal of “jointness” in program participation:
94.0% of persons who receive cash benefits and 67.1% of those who receive food stamps
are also enrolled in Medicaid. As a result, it is unlikely that the immigrant restrictions in
PRWORA can help identify the separate effects