job exit behavior of older men a dynamic programming model of job exit behavior and retirement is constructed and estimated using the method of simulated moments the model and estimation method allow for both unobserved individual effects and unobserved job specific match effects the model is estimated using two different assumptions about individual discount factors first a static model with the discount factor equal to zero is estimated then a dynamic model with the discount factor equal to 95 is estimated in both models it is found that bad health age and lack of education increase the probability of retirement the dynamic model performs better than the static model and has different implications for retirement behavior the job specific effects are an important source of unobserved heterogeneity copyright 1991 by the econometric society

semi parametric estimation of the effect of health on labour force participation of married women this paper uses the semi parametric method for binary choice models developed by wang and zhou 1995 to estimate the effect of health on the labour force participation of married women using data from the panel study of income dynamics 1989 interviewing year the semi parametric method is particularly useful if empirical studies involve many explanatory variables and large sample sizes the estimation results show that the health condition is a good predictor of participation the results also demonstrate that the easy to compute semi parametric method is practical for empirical studies furthermore the empirical results suggest that both logit and probit estimators may underestimate the effect of wives health conditions on their labour force participation

the decline in male labor force participation comment in an article in thisjournal parsons 1980a analyzes the doubling in the rate of nonparticipation in the labor force of older men since 1946 using cross sectional data from the national longitudinal survey parnes et al 1970 in an index function model of the labor force participation decision he tests the assertion that the withdrawal of older males is attributable to the rapid expansion of alternatives to work provided by the social security disability insurance ssdi program he reports an elasticity of nonparticipation with respect to the replacement rate of ssdi benefits of 631 and concludes that the recent decline in labor force participation can be largely explained by the increased generosity of social welfare transfers particularly social security disability payments p 130 the magnitude of parsons s estimate and its impact on the public debate over disability transfer policy require careful scrutiny of its basis in section i we describe parsons s econometric model and construction of variables in section ii we provide a critique in section iii we test the robustness of parsons s elasticity estimate by presenting alternative estimates based on corrections and extensions of his basic model section iv concludes

explaining applications to the u s disability system a semiparametric approach 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

is there employment discrimination against the disabled abstract using differences in the work limiting nature of a disability employment discrimination against the disabled is separated from the unobserved effect of disability on productivity the uk evidence suggests unobserved productivity differences are an important influence on the employment gap

impacts of disability on poverty quasi experimental evidence from landmine amputees in cambodia abstract this paper examines the impacts of disability on poverty in rural cambodia i combine a natural experiment and spatial blocking first i focus on amputation among adults due to landmines which is free from measurement errors and the onset of which is an exogenous shock second i conduct an original survey stratified by disability status within villages where people have shared the same local vulnerability to landmine accidents this research design enables matching analysis within small geographic areas treating demographic factors such as household formation and fertility as endogenous this quasi experimental study finds that amputation greatly reduces consumption and income but not subjective well being i e adaptation increasing poverty and augmenting its magnitude disability triggers a vicious circle of reduced work low earnings and limited accumulation of productive assets and social capital this work cum asset channel leads to adverse intergenerational effects on child schooling and child labor

the impact of child care costs on the labour supply of married mothers evidence from canada this paper provides estimates for canada of the impact of childcare costs on the labor supply of married mothers this is done by linking two microdata sources the 1988 canadian national child care survey and the 1988 labour market activity survey the key results show that the market wage and childcare costs have respectively a significant positive and negative impact on both hours of work and the labor force participation decision by married mothers the childcare cost elasticities for labor force participation and hours of work are reported to be 0 38 and 0 32 respectively

the effect of child care costs on married women s labor force participation the effect of child care costs on the probability that married women with children will participate in the labor market is examined child care costs are estimated using a generalized tobit specification corrected for selection estimates of a structural probit model of labor force participation provide evidence to support the prediction that increased child care costs lower the probability of participation it is also shown that the lower rate of labor force participation among mothers of preschoolers is entirely the result of the higher child care costs faced by these women and endogeneity of the number of young children in the participation equation copyright 1992 by mit press

measuring the effect of disability on labor force participation this paper estimates the effect of disability on labor force participation by using symptoms or diseases as instruments in a simultaneous equations model of endogenous reported disability and labor force participation the results show that each measure of disability explains a significant amount of variation in labor force participation though the two are not perfect substitutes there is only weak evidence of endogeneity of the disability variables for cases where there is evidence of endogeneity the bias it causes has the opposite effect of that hypothesized in the literatute i e stress causes health to deteriorate with labor force participation furthermore it has only insignificant effects on the coefficients for other variables

the health and earnings of rejected disability insurance applicants applicants for social security disability benefits who fail to pass the medical screening form a natural control group for beneficiaries data drawn from the 1972 and 1978 surveys of the disabled done for the social security administration show that fewer than 50 percent of rejected male applicants work typical earnings of those that do are less than 59 percent of median earnings for other men their age these data cast doubt on recent econometric work that suggests that the disincentive effects of the social security disability program have been substantial copyright 1989 by american economic association

disability earnings income and consumption 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 first disability rates are high we divide the disabled along two dimensions based on the persistence and severity of their work limiting condition we estimate that a person reaching age 56 has a 53 percent chance of having been disabled at least once during his working years and a 19 percent chance that he has begun a chronic and severe disability second the economic consequences of disability are frequently profound ten years after disability onset a person with a chronic and severe disability on average experiences a 68 percent decline in earnings a 32 percent decline in after tax income a 22 percent decline in food and housing consumption and a 21 percent decline in food consumption third the various economic consequences differ sharply across disability groups the outcome declines for those with a chronic and severe disability are often more than twice as large as those for the average disabled fourth our findings show the partial and incomplete roles that individual savings family support and social insurance play in reducing the consumption drop that follows disability only about half of this most disabled group reports receiving social security disability insurance or supplemental security income fifth we find a noticeable fall in earnings and income prior to the onset of a reported disability consumption also falls somewhat suggesting that future disability is partially but incompletely predictable in the short run sixth time use and detailed consumption data further indicate that disability is associated with a decline in well being seventh the quantities we have estimated combined with elasticities from the literature allow us to examine the optimality of current compensation for the disabled we find that the current compensation for our most disabled group appears to be lower than is optimal

do the sick retire early chronic illness asset accumulation and early retirement our objective is to determine how chronic illness affects asset accumulation and retirement previous studies have found that poor health leads to early retirement but those studies failed to look at the indirect impact of chronic illness on retirement using data from the health and retirement study we define an illness as chronic if the individual reports having asthma cancer heart disease stroke or diabetes for four or more years we first estimate how a chronic illness influences asset accumulation we then estimate how asset accumulation and current poor health influence retirement we observe that the vast majority of the chronically ill population do not report their general health to be poor nor do they report functional limitations in activities of daily living nevertheless our results indicate that chronic illness leads these people to accumulate fewer assets during their working years and consequently retire later neither researchers nor policy makers discussing the many critical issues

labour force participation by disabled males in canada the disabled are not necessarily unemployed although about a quarter of them report they are completely prevented from working a disabled person s decision to work or not depends on a variety of psychological social and economic as well as health factors this paper asks if canadian disability related insurance schemes discourage work it models and measures the impact of disability benefits on the work choice of disabled prime age males it finds that they amount to a significant work disincentive but better yet they likely save many disabled persons from unsuitable and or undesirable jobs

labor market discrimination against men with disabilities in the year of the ada the americans with disabilities act ada provides civil rights protections to persons with disabilities but the debate that preceded passage of the act was not based on empirical estimates that could be used to measure its performance this article estimates the extent of wage discrimination against men with disabilities in 1990 providing a reference that can be used to evaluate the impact of the ada the results show large productivity standardized wage differentials between disabled and nondisabled men that are weakly correlated with the strength of prejudice against different impairments physical limitations explain part but not all of the wage differentials the results also show that low employment rates are a more serious problem than wage discrimination for workers with disabilities provide civil rights protections to persons with disabilities the act s supporters promised that it would increase the employment and wages of persons with disabilities and reduce their dependency on public programs the promises were not based on empirical estimates of discrimination and there is no empirical base against which to compare the promises to the performance of the ada this article estimates the extent of wage discrimination against men with disabilities in 1990 providing a reference that can be used to evaluate the impact of the act the ada does not grant a right to employment to all persons with disabilities it requires that persons with disabilities be able to perform the jobs they seek subject to reasonable accommodations by employers this article therefore considers men who are able to work even though their health limits the amount or kind of work they can perform the ada s provisions assume that low wages and low employment rates for persons with disabilities are the result of discrimination caused by prejudice prejudice against persons with disabilities is well documented but so are the limiting effects of physical impairments on workplace productivity hahn 1987 margolis and shapiro 1987 clogston 1990 the core of the debate concerning the value of the ada is whether the poor labor market outcomes of persons with disabilities are the result of discrimination or the limiting effects of health con

a structural model of social security s disability determination process we estimate a multistage sequential logit model reflecting the structure of the disability determination process of the social security administration ssa the model is estimated using household survey information exact matched to ssa records on disability adjudications from 1989 to 1993 under program provisions different criteria dictate outcomes at different steps of the determination process we find that without the multistaged structural approach effects of many important health disability and vocational factors are not readily discernible as a result split sample predictions of overall allowance rates from the sequential model perform considerably better than do those for the conventional allowed denied logit regression

health and wage a simultaneous equation model with multiple discrete indicators in this article we propose all econometric approach for estimating the simultaneouls effects of health and wages in a structural equations framework in the theoretical works of grossmana 1972a 1972b health is viewed as anl elldogen1oulsly determined capital stock the demand for health should rise with the wage rate as the rate of return to health investment increases with wage onl the other hand better health should raise market productivity and hence wages since health capital is an abstract theoretical concept it can hardly be measured quantitatively however most population surveys include various health indicators these indicators are usually discrete variables in the empirical work of grossman and benham 1974 these qualitative indicators are treated as continuous variables and two stage least squares estimation techniques are used this specification raises various econometric problems see e g goldberger 1964 pp 248 255 domencich and mcfadden 1975 and nerlove and press 1973 a satisfactory specification should take into account the discrete nature of the indicators our specification generalizes the dummy variables simultaneous equations system of heckman 1978 the measurement models of joreskog and goldberger 1975 and is closely related to the models of muthe n 1976 1979 muthen studies full information maximum likelihood procedures for estimation except for very simple cases this does not generally yield feasible or tractable procedures in this article we introduce a tractable procedure for statistical estimation and testing this specification and the estimation procedure is then applied to study the joint dependence of health and wages another departure of our approach from others is that we will test and correct the possible incompatibility of the various health capital indicators in the population surveys one may have subjective health indicators such as self evaluation of health which may reflect different populations perception of health we propose a statistical procedure for testing measurement compatibility and if required for correcting this problem this article is divided into two parts initially we describe the model specification estimation and statistical tests in a general simultaneous equation model with multiple discrete indicators in the second part of the paper we consider specification of a simultaneous equation model for health and wages the model

the longitudinal structure of earnings losses among work limited disabled workers this paper asks what are the dynamic effects of disability on earnings unlike most of the previous literature it uses panel data and fixed effects methods are used to assess how the earnings of disabled workers depart from expected levels over many years before and after the date of onset of their disability the paper also examines how worker characteristics affect earnings losses from disability with particular attention paid to the age at which the person suffers onset disabled men are found to experience sharp drops in earnings that predate the measured date of onset earnings recover rapidly soon after onset with much of the immediate reduction made up in the first two post onset years a modest downward trendfollows resulting in significant long term losses in expected annual earnings of about 12 percent per year being older at onset nonwhite more chronically disabled and less educated cause the losses from disability to be larger and the recovery smaller a large portion of these differences across groups appear to derive from industry affiliation after onset the paper argues the facts are all consistent with a simple human capital explanation of the disability process

work limiting health earnings and employment an analysis with sipp data abstractthis study examines the role of work limiting health conditions on employed people s earnings employment status and working hours and distinguishes between the different degree and sever

labour market discrimination on the basis of health an application to uk data an analysis of wage discrimination is carried out on the basis of health on uk data with a number of important modifications first selection is controlled for into both health and labour market status second the direct effect of health upon productivity is accounted for and third discrimination is examined with regard to participation as well as wages the question of selection into health status is found to be of little empirical importance but taking account of selection into labour market status and the direct impact of health upon productivity leads to a fall in measured discrimination the paper finds similar results with regard to participation it is also examined whether these effects differ across age and gender

disability insurance and the dynamics of the incentive insurance trade off we provide a life cycle framework for comparing insurance and disincentive effects of disability benefits the risks that individuals face and the parameters of the disability insurance di program are estimated from consumption health disability insurance and wage data we characterize the effects of disability insurance and study how policy reforms impact behavior and welfare di features high rejection rates of disabled applicants and some acceptance of healthy applicants despite worse incentives welfare increases as programs become less strict or generosity increases disability insurance interacts with welfare programs making unconditional means tested programs more generous improves disability insurance targeting and increases welfare

ill health and retirement in britain a panel data based analysis we examine the effect of ill health on retirement decisions in britain using the british household panel survey 1991 1998 as self reported health status is likely to be endogenous to the retirement decision we instrument self reported health by a constructed health stock measure using a set of health indicator variables and personal characteristics as suggested by bound et al bound j schoenbaum m stinebrickner t m waidmann m 1999 the dynamic effects of health on the labor force transitions of older workers labour economics 6 179 202 using a range of econometric techniques we show that adverse shocks to individual health stocks predict individual retirement behaviour among workers aged from 50 until state pension age we compare responses of economic activity to constructed health measures with that arising using direct indicators of functional limitations and specific health problems we also examine the dynamics of health shocks and whether adverse and positive health shocks have symmetric effects on transitions in and out of economic activity

preferences and willingness to pay for gm labeling policies abstract the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture is currently the focus of intense public and political debate press articles provide evidence that us consumer concerns toward biotechnology are increasing in this paper we analyze whether consumers prefer mandatory or voluntary labeling schemes through contingent valuation additionally we calculate the premium that consumers are willing to pay in order to subsidize their favorite labeling alternative we find that the premium associated with mandatory labeling is lower than expected costs this indicates that in spite of the concerns surrounding biotechnology consumers remain fairly confident with the current food and drug administration policy which does not require mandatory labeling

job displacement disability and divorce earnings shocks should affect divorce probability by changing a couple s expected gains from marriage we find that the divorce hazard rises after a spouse s job displacement but does not change after a spousal disability this difference casts doubt on a purely pecuniary motivation for divorce following earnings shocks since both types of shocks exhibit similar long run economic consequences furthermore the increase in divorce is found only for layoffs and not for plant closings suggesting that information conveyed about a partner s noneconomic suitability as a mate due to a job loss may be more important than financial losses in precipitating divorce

gender differences in wage losses from impairments estimates from the survey of income and program participation this article develops a model of the relationships among functional impairments work disability employment participation and wage offers the model is estimated separately for males and females with data from the 1984 survey of income and program participation using estimates of disability and wage equations we rank 25 functional impairments by severity of disability and estimate the wage penalty associated with each impairment the results show that limitations to mobility and strength are relatively more disabling for males than for females while the opposite is true for limitations to sensory capacities and appearance

the early retirement decision new empirical evidence on the influence of health many studies have examined the influence of health on retirement but there may be problems with the various health measures used a major criticism of the most frequently used variables is that they may reflect ex post rationalizations of retirement in this paper i examine a variety of health variables focusing directly on the health measurement issue as it relates to retirement research new measures of health are developed with individual self evaluations of health status unlike most previous findings the empirical results suggest that economic variables play a more important role than health in retirement decisions

insuring consumption against illness one of the most sizable and least predictable shocks to economic opportunities in developing countries is major illness we investigate the extent to which families are able to insure consumption against major illness using a unique panel data set from indonesia that combines excellent measures of health status with consumption information we find that there are significant economic costs associated with major illness and that there is very imperfect insurance of consumption over illness episodes these estimates suggest that public disability insurance or subsidies for medical care may improve welfare by providing consumption insurance

the long run consumption effects of earnings shocks although prior studies of job displacement and disability have measured the impact of these shocks in terms of lost earnings no previous research has linked these permanent earnings shocks to the

differences in the returns to education for males by disability status and age of disability onset author affiliation kevin hollenbeck w e upjohn institute 300 south westnedge avenue kalamazoo mi 49007 usa e mail hollenbeck upjohninstitute org jean kimmel department of economics western michigan university kalamazoo mi 49008 4023 usa e mail jean kimmel wmich edu corresponding author acknowledgment this paper is a substantially revised version of a paper that was first presented at the january 2001 assa meetings held in new orleans louisiana and then circulated as upjohn institute working paper no 01 72 the authors thank our discussant robert haveman for his excellent suggestions andrew houtenville for generous assistance with the disability literature doug kruse for input and data assistance above and beyond the call of duty and noyna debburman jason preuss and yuanlei zhu for their skillful research assistance additionally we are very appreciative to claire black and sue berkebile for their superb assistance in preparation of the manuscript finally we thank our journal editor plus two anonymous journal referees 1 introductionin 1990 the u s congress passed the americans with disabilities act ada legislation perceived as a hallmark in the quest by individuals with disabilities for equal access to labor market opportunities numerous studies have been published in recent years assessing the outcomes to date of this legislation and much debate continues regarding its success or failure in improving labor market outcomes however the ada is only one means of addressing labor market difficulties faced by individuals with disabilities because its primary intent is to expand the number of employment opportunities via employer accommodation the ada may be characterized as a demand side intervention 1 numerous education training and rehabilitation programs operate on the supply side of the labor market one example of increased attention on supply side programs may be seen in the workforce investment act of 1998 this sort of disability management model program has the goal of enhancing the skills and knowledge of workers with disabilities to increase their productivity and employability 2 the returns to education for the population with disabilities is indicative of the potential efficacy of such supply side interventions if the rates of return to formal education are large then it might be argued that there is an underinvestment in such interventions if the rates are low then expanding this human capital intervention as a way to improve employment or earnings may not be indicated formal educational attainment and its differential effects by disability status and age of onset are the focus of this paper for an individual with a work limiting condition the age of onset of this condition plays a role in education choices and employment a priori one might expect that among the population with disabilities those with early onset of the disability are the most able to adjust human capital investments and obtain job matches that minimize the potentially negative labor market impacts of the disabling condition see loprest and maag 2003 however the early onset of the disability might hinder human capital investment or affect its quality many studies and data sets have been used to document the disparities in employment related outcomes between people with and without disabilities and many nice summaries exist in the literature 3 depending on the data used and the definition of disability 4 approximately 8 15 of individuals of working age have disabilities in general individuals with a disability report lower employment rates lower levels of educational attainment and lower wages additionally many researchers have reported a post ada decline in employment rates although the cause of this trend is not clear and might be related to a worsening in recent years of disability severity amongst the population reporting disabilities or the trend might be confounded by changes in the labor force participation rates among the disabled

health and wages panel data estimates considering selection and endogeneity this paper complements previous studies on the effects of health on wages by addressing the problems of unobserved heterogeneity sample selection and endogeneity in one comprehensive framework using data from the german socio economic panel gsoep we find the health variable to suffer from measurement error and a number of tests provide evidence that selection corrections are necessary good health leads to higher wages for men while there appears to be no significant effect for women contingent on the method of estimation healthy males are estimated to earn between 1 3 and 7 8 more than those in poor health

an exogeneity test for a simultaneous equation tobit model with an application to labor supply a test of weak exogeneity in the simultaneous equation tobit model is proposed and illustrated using a female labour supply model estimated using cross section data the test statistic can be simply output from any standard tobit maximum likelihood package and is asymptotically efficient the procedure provides consistent estimators for the simultaneous tobit model whose asymptotic covariance matrix is a simple extension of the usual tobit formula we also provide the lagrange multiplier test of weak exogeneity this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

equilibrium unemployment and retirement we first propose some new empirical evidence on the fact that the labor market conditions matter for the retirement decision at the individual level we investigate whether unemployed workers retire before employed workers other things being equal our main objective in this paper is then to propose an equilibrium unemployment approach to retirement decisions that allows us to derive the positive and normative features of retirement decisions when search and matching frictions are considered two main conclusions emerge the retirement decision of unemployed workers depends on the labor market frictions whereas that of employed workers does not the existence of search externalities makes the retirement age of unemployed workers intrinsically suboptimal considering social security policy issues we show that the complete elimination of the implicit tax on continued activity is not necessarily welfare optimizing in a second best world where the labor market equilibrium suffers from distortions

chronic diseases and labour force participation in australia we examine the impact of several chronic diseases on the probability of labour force participation using data from the australian national health surveys an endogenous multivariate probit model is used to account for the potential endogeneity of the incidence of chronic conditions such as diabetes cardiovascular diseases and mental illnesses the cross equation correlations are significant rejecting the exogeneity of the chronic illnesses marginal effects of exogenous socio demographic and lifestyle variables are estimated through their direct effects on labour market participation and indirect effects via the chronic diseases the treatment effects of chronic diseases on labour force participation are estimated via conditional probabilities using five dimensional normal distributions the estimated effects differ by gender and age groups although computationally more demanding these treatment effects are compared with results from a univariate model treating the chronic conditions exogenous and the structural effects from the multivariate probit model both significantly overestimate the effects