Evaluating Recent Crackdowns on Disability Benefits: Effects on Income and Health Care Use in Australia

We thank the Becker-Friedman Institute, the Ronzetti Initiative for the Study of Labor Markets, and the National Science Foundation (CAREER Grant 1941538) for funding. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funder. We thank Yalun Su and Marcia Ruiz Pulgar for excellent research assistance. We thank the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Social Services for making the data available. We thank Gemma van Haldren, Lachlan McColl, Benjamin Peoples, Caroline Stevens, Michael Harvey, Nathan Dean, Sara Morris, Timothy Sekuless, Sam McNamara, and Kayelle Drinkwater of DSS, and Michael Brennan, Zach Hayward, Rose Khatar, Gianni La Cava and Matt Nolan of the e61 Institute, for sharing their knowledge of the program and the data. For helpful comments we thank Martin Andresen, Janet Currie, Morten Håvarstein, Jeff Hicks, Maxwell Kellogg, Kory Kroft, Ralph Lattimore, David Orsmond, Kristen Sobeck, Michael Stepner, and seminar participants at NBER Public Economics Spring 2024 meeting, Brandeis, University of Oslo, BI Norwegian Business School, Macquarie University, e61 Institute, and Australian National University for helpful comments. The results of these studies are based, in part, on data supplied to the ABS under the Taxation Administration Act 1953, A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999, Australian Border Force Act 2015, Social Security (Administration) Act 1999, A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999, Paid Parental Leave Act 2010 and/or the Student Assistance Act 1973. Such data may only used for the purpose of administering the Census and Statistics Act 1905 or performance of functions of the ABS as set out in section 6 of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975. No individual information collected under the Census and Statistics Act 1905 is provided back to custodians for administrative or regulatory purposes. Any discussion of data limitations or weaknesses is in the context of using the data for statistical purposes and is not related to the ability of the data to support the Australian Taxation Office, Australian Business Register, Department of Social Services and/or Department of Home Affairs’ core operational requirements. Legislative requirements to ensure privacy and secrecy of these data have been followed. For access to PLIDA and/or BLADE data under Section 16A of the ABS Act 1975 or enabled by section 15 of the Census and Statistics (Information Release and Access) Determination 2018, source data are de-identified and so data about specific individuals has not been viewed in conducting this analysis. In accordance with the Census and Statistics Act 1905, results have been treated where necessary to ensure that they are not likely to enable identification of a particular person or organisation. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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