Disability Insurance and the Great Recession
American Economic Review
vol. 105,
no. 5, May 2015
(pp. 177-82)
Abstract
The US Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program is designed to provide income support to workers who become unable to work because of a severe, long-lasting disability. In this study, we use administrative data to estimate the effect of labor market conditions, as measured by the unemployment rate, on the number of SSDI applications, the number and composition of initial allowances and denials, and the timing of applications relative to disability onset. We analyze the period of the Great Recession, and compare this period with business cycle effects over the past two decades, from 1992 through 2012.Citation
Maestas, Nicole, Kathleen J. Mullen, and Alexander Strand. 2015. "Disability Insurance and the Great Recession." American Economic Review, 105 (5): 177-82. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20151089Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E24 Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
- E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
- H55 Social Security and Public Pensions
- I13 Health Insurance, Public and Private
- J14 Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination