2021

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was introduced in 1990 with the goal of protecting disabled workers. While a number of studies have examined the impact of the ADA on the employment of disabled individuals, it is also important to…

The enormous health and economic burdens imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic may impact Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) application and receipt in several ways. Patients who recover from COVID-19 can have long-term health consequences that preclude work, others will delay…

Public disability insurance systems vary considerably across countries. There is variation in the benefit amounts, program administrative costs, eligibility criteria, coverage scope, accommodations such as fast-tracking of applications, and the disability determination process. The latter is of particular interest to…

This project will examine the physical/mental functioning and use of accommodations among workers in three key occupations, selected from 14 identified as physically demanding and highly prevalent among SSDI applicants. SSA’s input will be sought when selecting the three occupations.…

Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS), this project will examine the effects of physical and cognitive job demands, as well as educational requirements, on heterogeneous pathways from full-time work to retirement.…

Using administrative data, this project will quantify the incentive effects and equity of the Social Security survivor benefit. The project will first analyze incentive effects on the timing of initial claiming of retired-worker benefits by both spouses. The survivor benefit…

We will use data about early- and midlife adversity from the Health and Retirement Study, including the new Life History Mail Survey, to examine the effects of adverse experiences on retirement due to disability. We hypothesize that early- and midlife…

My Social Security (mySSA) is a key online resource offered by the Social Security Administration, providing users with a single access point to all SSA electronic services. While ostensibly an accessible and useful tool that can save users a significant…

Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), this project will estimate a dynamic model of medical spending and how medical spending shocks affect the wealth and insurance purchases of older Americans.…

We propose to use new data from the 2019 wave of the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey to help interpret the observed decline in spending as individuals age. At one extreme, forward-looking individuals optimally chose the decline; at the other,…