Volume 35, Number 1 (Winter) 2000
Kreider, Brent, and Regina T. Riphahn. 2000.
"Explaining Applications to the U.S. Disability Program: A Semiparametric Approach." Journal of Human Resources
35(1):82-115.
This study investigates the determinants of applications for U.S. disability benefits between 1986 and 1993 using a semiparametric discrete factor procedure separately for men and women. Approximating a dynamic optimization model, the estimation accounts for a variety of potential biases that were unaddressed in prior studies. Our results indicate different responses of men and women to variations in policy measures. Past labor earnings and fringe benefits as well as benefit eligibility and benefit amounts clearly affect application behavior.
Brent Kreider is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Virginia. Regina Riphahn is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Munich, Germany. They acknowledge very helpful comments from Tom Mroz, Timothy Waidmann, Klaus F. Zimmermann, two anonymous referees and seminar participants at the Annual Meetings of the Population Association of America in May 1996. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning April 2000 through March 2001 from Brent Kreider at the following address: Department of Economics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22 903.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X