We study the economic situation of disabled women and the role that taxes and transfers play in improving their economic circumstances, using 1968-2015 data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We begin by documenting the trends in point-in-time disability rates of women as well as estimating...
This study aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the prevalence and well-being of pre-retirement disabled individuals, as they enter retirement. Though the number of Social Security Disability Insurance claimants has risen over the last few decades, the impact of pre-retirement disability on a...
Household surveys, one of the main innovations in social science research of the last century, are threatened by declining accuracy due to reduced cooperation of respondents. While many indicators of survey quality have steadily declined in recent decades, the literature has largely emphasized...
We study the economic effects of disability on women using 44 years of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We begin by documenting the trends in point-in-time disability rates of women as well as estimating the prevalence of disability over a womans lifetime. We find that women are more...
With the U.S. Disability Insurance (DI) program serving an ever-increasing number of beneficiaries and the DI trust fund projected to be exhausted by 2016, the DI program is likely to be the object of increasing scrutiny by policy makers in coming years. A solid base of research will be needed to...
Using longitudinal data for 1968-2009 for male household heads, we determine the prevalence of pre- retirement age disability and its association with a wide range of outcomes, including earnings, income, and consumption. We then employ some of these quantities in the optimal social insurance...
Using longitudinal data for the period 1968-2005 for a sample of male household heads, we determine the prevalence of disability during the working years and examine how the extent of disability affects a range of outcomes, including earnings, income, and consumption. We have seven main findings....
High rates of understatement are found for many government transfer programs and in many datasets. This understatement has major implications for our understanding of economic well-being and the effects of transfer programs. We provide estimates of the extent of under-reporting for ten transfer...
Benefit receipt in major household surveys is often under-reported. In recent years, as many as half of the dollars received through Food Stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Workers' Compensation has not been reported in the Current Population Survey (CPS). High rates of...
This paper examines unemployment duration and the incidence of claims following a 36 percent increase in the maximum weekly benefit in New York State. This benefit increase sharply increased benefits for a large group of claimants, while leaving them unchanged for a large share of claimants who...