IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/izalbr/v5y2016i1d10.1186_s40172-016-0041-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What happens when the definition of disability changes? The case of obesity

Author

Listed:
  • Jennifer Bennett Shinall

    (Vanderbilt University Law School)

Abstract

This paper examines how Congress’s 2008 expansion of who is disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) impacts the labor market outcomes of newly covered individuals. Focusing on obese individuals, I exploit variation in coverage of obesity before and after the 2008 expansion to identify effects of the legal change, but I find no improvement in the labor market outcomes of the obese. Although the 2008 expansion was intended to remedy the unintended consequences of the ADA and improve labor market outcomes of the disabled, these early estimates suggest that the expansion has not yet achieved Congress’s stated goals. JEL codes: J14, J21, J78, K31

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer Bennett Shinall, 2016. "What happens when the definition of disability changes? The case of obesity," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-30, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:izalbr:v:5:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1186_s40172-016-0041-0
    DOI: 10.1186/s40172-016-0041-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s40172-016-0041-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s40172-016-0041-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin M. Clermont & Stewart J. Schwab, 2004. "How Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs Fare in Federal Court," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(2), pages 429-458, July.
    2. Daron Acemoglu & Joshua D. Angrist, 2001. "Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(5), pages 915-957, October.
    3. Kathleen Beegle & Wendy A. Stock, 2003. "The Labor Market Effects of Disability Discrimination Laws," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 38(4).
    4. Susan Averett & Sanders Korenman, 1996. "The Economic Reality of the Beauty Myth," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(2), pages 304-330.
    5. Darius Lakdawalla & Tomas Philipson, 2007. "Labor Supply and Weight," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(1).
    6. John Cawley, 2004. "The Impact of Obesity on Wages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    7. Thomas DeLeire, 2000. "The Wage and Employment Effects of the Americans with Disabilities Act," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(4), pages 693-715.
    8. John Bound & Timothy Waidmann, 2002. "Accounting for Recent Declines in Employment Rates among Working-Aged Men and Women with Disabilities," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(2), pages 231-250.
    9. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2003. "Interaction terms in logit and probit models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 123-129, July.
    10. Julie L. Hotchkiss, 2004. "A Closer Look at the Employment Impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(4).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rachel Inafuku, 2022. "Only the Fit Survive Recessions: Estimating Labor Market Penalties for the Obese Over the Business Cycle," Working Papers 202201, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Allison V. Thompkins, "undated". "Did the ADA Evolve into Our Ramp to Full Employment? An Analysis of 18 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act," Mathematica Policy Research Reports cc8dbea7a581477e847c92622, Mathematica Policy Research.
    2. Patrick Button & Philip Armour & Simon Hollands, 2023. "Estimating the Effects of the ADA Amendments Act on the Hiring and Termination of Individuals with Disabilities, Using New Disability Categorizations," Upjohn Working Papers 22-377, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    3. Baum II, Charles L. & Ruhm, Christopher J., 2009. "Age, socioeconomic status and obesity growth," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 635-648, May.
    4. Melanie K. Jones, 2009. "The Employment Effect of the Disability Discrimination Act: Evidence from the Health Survey for England," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(2), pages 349-369, June.
    5. Christine Jolls & J.J. Prescott, 2004. "Disaggregating Employment Protection: The Case of Disability Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 10740, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. repec:tul:wpaper:1506 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Bell, David & Heitmueller, Axel, 2009. "The Disability Discrimination Act in the UK: Helping or hindering employment among the disabled?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 465-480, March.
    8. John J. Donohue III & Michael Ashley Stein & Christopher L. Griffin, Jr. & Sascha Becker, 2011. "Assessing Post‐ADA Employment: Some Econometric Evidence and Policy Considerations," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(3), pages 477-503, September.
    9. Wendy A. Stock & Kathleen Beegle, 2004. "Employment Protections for Older Workers: Do Disability Discrimination Laws Matter?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(1), pages 111-126, January.
    10. Mason Ameri & Lisa Schur & Meera Adya & F. Scott Bentley & Patrick McKay & Douglas Kruse, 2018. "The Disability Employment Puzzle: A Field Experiment on Employer Hiring Behavior," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(2), pages 329-364, March.
    11. Melanie K. Jones & Jonathan Jones, 2008. "The Labour Market Impact Of The Uk Disability Discrimination Act: Evidence From The Repeal Of The Small Firm Exemption," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 289-306, July.
    12. Hullegie, Patrick & Koning, Pierre, 2018. "How disability insurance reforms change the consequences of health shocks on income and employment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 134-146.
    13. Michael Palmer & Jenny Williams, 2020. "Are Employment Protection Laws for Disabled People Effective in a Developing Country?," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 20-22, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    14. Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2012. "A Matter of Weight? The Role of Spouses. Physical Attractiveness on Hours of Work," CHILD Working Papers Series 7, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    15. Zweimüller, Josef & Lalive, Rafael & Wuellrich, Jean-Philippe, 2009. "Do Financial Incentives for Firms Promote Employment of Disabled Workers? A Regression Discontinuity Approach," CEPR Discussion Papers 7373, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Lisa Barrow & Kristin F. Butcher, 2004. "Not working: demographic changes, policy changes, and the distribution of weeks (not) worked," Working Paper Series WP-04-23, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    17. Euna Han & Edward C. Norton & Lisa M. Powell, 2009. "Direct and Indirect Effects of Teenage Body Weight on Adult Wages," NBER Working Papers 15027, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Wuellrich, Jean-Philippe, 2010. "The effects of increasing financial incentives for firms to promote employment of disabled workers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 173-176, May.
    19. Euna Han & Edward C. Norton & Sally C. Stearns, 2009. "Weight and wages: fat versus lean paychecks," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(5), pages 535-548, May.
    20. Lamichhane, Kamal & Sawada, Yasuyuki, 2013. "Disability and returns to education in a developing country," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 85-94.
    21. Patrick Button, 2018. "Expanding Employment Discrimination Protections for Individuals with Disabilities: Evidence from California," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(2), pages 365-393, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ADA; Disability law; Obesity; Employment discrimination; Law in action;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:izalbr:v:5:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1186_s40172-016-0041-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.