Trends in Employment and Earnings of Allowed and Rejected Applicants to the Social Security Disability Insurance Program

Till von Wachter, Jae Song () and Joyce Manchester

American Economic Review, 2011, vol. 101, issue 7, 3308-29

Abstract: Longitudinal administrative data show that rejected male applicants to the Disability Insurance (DI) program who are younger or have low-mortality impairments such as back pain and mental health problems exhibit substantial labor force attachment. While we confirm that employment rates of older rejected applicants are low, continued high numbers of younger and low-mortality beneficiaries have raised the potential employment of DI beneficiaries. Three findings support economic inducement to apply. Mean preapplication earnings have fallen, rejected applicants experience preapplication declines in earnings, and beneficiaries whose first applications were rejected at the DDS level but who ultimately received benefits exhibit substantial employment. (JEL: H55, J14, J28, J31)

Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (158)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.101.7.3308 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/dec2011/20081333_data.pdf dataset accompanying article (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
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:aea:aecrev:v:101:y:2011:i:7:p:3308-29

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().