TY  - JOUR
AU  - Milligan, Kevin
AU  - Schirle, Tammy
TI  - Push and Pull: Disability Insurance, Regional Labor Markets, and Benefit Generosity in Canada and the United States
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 23405
PY  - 2017
Y2  - May 2017
DO  - 10.3386/w23405
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w23405
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w23405.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Kevin S. Milligan
Vancouver School of Economics
University of British Columbia
6000 Iona Drive
Vancouver, BC V6T 1L4
CANADA
E-Mail: kevin.milligan@ubc.ca

Tammy Schirle
Department of Economics
Wilfrid Laurier University
75 University Avenue West
Waterloo ON N2L 3C5
CANADA
E-Mail: tschirle@wlu.ca
M1  - published as Kevin S. Milligan, Tammy Schirle. "Push and Pull: Disability Insurance, Regional Labor Markets, and Benefit Generosity in Canada and the United States," in Philip Oreopoulos and David Card, organizers, "Small Differences II: Public Policies in Canada and the United States" The University of Chicago Press, Journal of Labor Economics volume 37, S2 (2019)

AB  - Disability insurance take-up has expanded substantially in the past twenty years in the United States while shrinking in Canada. We empirically assess these trends by measuring the strength of the ‘push’ from weak labor markets versus the ‘pull’ of more generous benefits. Using an instrumental variables strategy comparing benefit changes across country, age, and year, we find that both benefits and regional wages matter. Simulations suggest that the upswing in disability insurance take-up in the United States would be reversed, dropping the caseload by one third, if benefits and wages had followed the growth path observed in Canada.
ER  -