Health, Employment, and Disability: Implications from the Undocumented Population

George Borjas and David Slusky

No 24504, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The number of disability beneficiaries doubled in the past two decades. It is difficult to determine how much is explained by changes in health, as we lack a counterfactual. We use undocumented immigrants to form the counterfactual, as they cannot claim benefits. Using NHIS data, we show that the relationship between health and disability is stronger for the legal population than for the undocumented. Much of the difference in disability rates between the populations is due to different labor supply responses to underlying health impairments and demographic differences, rather than to differences in the impairments or demographic variables themselves.

JEL-codes: I12 I18 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-lab and nep-ltv
Note: EH LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as George J. Borjas & David J. G. Slusky, 2022. "Health, Employment, and Disability," American Journal of Health Economics, vol 8(1), pages 1-29.

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