2019
2019 RDRC Meeting: Grading Medicaid: Fiscal Federalism and Social Insurance in the United States
Social insurance programs are sometimes centralized, with all design and policy decisions made at the national level, and sometimes decentralized, with some level of local autonomy. In this paper, we study the trade-offs involved with decentralization of administration of social…
2019 RDRC Meeting: Economic Opportunity and Spatial Variation in Self-Reported Disability and Receipt of SSI & SSDI
There is substantial variation in both self-reported disability and receipt of federal disability assistance (SSI and SSDI) across U.S. counties. This project examines whether and to what extent spatial variation in economic opportunity—operationalized using place-based estimates of intergenerational economic mobility…
2019 RDRC Meeting: Trends in Opioid Use Among Social Security Disability Insurance Applicants
The prevalence of opioid use nationwide, coupled with the large share of new Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) awardees who have conditions associated with opioid use, suggests that opioid use may be common and increasing among SSDI applicants. But statistics…
2019 RDRC Meeting: Is the Rise in Illicit Opioids Affecting Labor Supply and Disability Claiming Rates?
This paper studies how the transition of the opioid crisis from misuse of prescription opioids to misuse of illicit opioids, such as heroin and fentanyl, is altering labor supply and disability claiming rates. There is widespread interest in understanding the…
2019 RDRC Meeting: Socioeconomic Status, Perceptions of Pain, and the Gradient in Disability Insurance
We explore the education difference in knee pain among middle-aged and older individuals. Knee pain differs greatly by education and is a key reason why disability insurance differs so much. We first show that knee pain is not strongly related…
2019 RDRC Meeting: Latent Work Capacity and Retirement Expectations
Understanding how health decline influences retirement decisions is fundamental for the design of targeted policies that encourage longer working lives. While there is wide agreement of the relevant role of age-related health decline in retirement decisions, the process of how…
2019 RDRC Meeting: The Effect of the Delayed Retirement Credit on Social Security Claiming and Employmen
In this project, we investigate the effect of changes in the delayed retirement credit (DRC) on workers’ decisions to claim retired-worker benefits. The DRC gives workers a financial incentive to delay claiming beyond their full retirement age (FRA). The 1983…
2019 RDRC Meeting: Does Student Loan Forgiveness Drive Disability Application
Student loan debt in the U.S. exceeds $1.3 trillion, and unlike credit card and medical debt, cannot typically be discharged through bankruptcy. Moreover, this debt has been increasing: The share of borrowers leaving school with more than $50,000 of federal…