Disability, earnings, income and consumption

Bruce D. Meyer and Wallace K.C. Mok

Journal of Public Economics, 2019, vol. 171, issue C, 51-69

Abstract: We study the well-being of disabled men and the economic benefits of disability insurance. Using longitudinal data for 1968–2015 for male household heads, we determine the prevalence of working-age disability, its association with a wide range of economic outcomes including, earnings, income, poverty, consumption, wealth and time-use. We disaggregate disabled men based on the persistence and severity of work-limiting conditions, and find that disability is common and associated with poor economic outcomes. The outcomes differ sharply by disability group. We then provide the range of behavioral elasticities and preference parameters consistent with current disability compensation being optimal in the Baily-Chetty framework.

Keywords: Disability; Disability insurance; Optimal benefits; Earnings; Income; Consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (53)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272718301245
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:pubeco:v:171:y:2019:i:c:p:51-69

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.06.011

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Public Economics is currently edited by R. Boadway and J. Poterba

More articles in Journal of Public Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().