Disability Insurance: Error Rates and Gender Differences

Luigi Pistaferri and Hamish Low

No 14169, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We show the extent of errors made in the award of disability insurance using matched survey-administrative data. False rejections (Type I errors) are widespread,and there are large gender differences in these type I error rates. Women with a severe, work-limiting, permanent impairment are 20 percentage points more likely to be rejected than men, controlling for the type of health condition, occupation, and a host of demographic characteristics. We investigate whether these gender differences in Type I errors are due to women being in better health than men, to women having lower pain thresholds, or to women applying more readily for disability insurance. None of these explanations are consistent with the data. We use evidence from disability vignettes to suggest that there are different acceptance thresholds for men and women. The differences by gender arise because women are more likely to be assessed as being able to find other work than observationally equivalent men. Despite this, after rejection,women with a self-reported work limitation do not return to work, compared to rejected women without a work limitation.

Keywords: Disability insurance; Gender differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP14169 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Disability Insurance: Error Rates and Gender Differences (2019)
Working Paper: Disability Insurance: Error Rates and Gender Differences (2019)
Working Paper: Disability Insurance: Error Rates and Gender Differences (2019)
Working Paper: Disability Insurance: Error Rates and Gender Differences (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14169

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP14169

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().