Disability, labor supply, and the impact of legislation

The equal employment of disabled individuals and the elimination of employment barriers for the disabled has been a policy objective reiterated and reinforced over the past few decades in the US, particularly, and most forcefully, by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). This legislation sought to protect the rights of workers with disabilities, and hoped, by doing so, to encourage greater labor market participation among those with physical or mental impairments. The ADA was followed by legislation in the Balanced Budget Act (1997) and the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (1999), both of which contain provisions to remove some of the institutional barriers that low-income disabled individuals face when seeking employment.; Since the passage of the ADA, however, survey data has indicated a decline in the employment rates of individuals with disabilities; a decline accompanied by rising participation rates among the disabled in Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Researchers have attempted to explain these unexpected trends in a number of ways, raising potential labor supply, labor demand, and very challenging data quality issues. My research stems from and builds on this debate.; In Chapter 2, I explore the declining employment trend of the disabled in the U.S. over the 1990s in the context of current debate, policy, and research. Using several years of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I test the hypothesis that there has been a compositional change in the 'disabled population' which may be driving the observed relative employment decline. This includes a rigorous examination of changes in work and welfare histories between self-identified men and women with disabilities.; In Chapter 3, I test whether the recent implementation of a Medicaid Buy-In Program in the State of California influenced the earnings and work behavior of the majority of participants: low income disabled individuals receiving SSDI. I employ Medi-Cal Eligibility data provided by the State of California, in conjunction with Social Security Administrative data, to evaluate the earnings impact of this program. Non-parametric matching techniques are used to build a comparison group in this non-experimental setting.