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Work Disability, Work, and Justification Bias in Europe and the U.S

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  • Arie Kapteyn
  • James P. Smith
  • Arthur van Soest

Abstract

To analyze the effect of health on work, many studies use a simple self-assessed health measure based upon a question such as “do you have an impairment or health problem limiting the kind or amount of work you can do?” A possible drawback of such a measure is the possibility that different groups of respondents may use different response scales. This is commonly referred to as “differential item functioning” (DIF). A specific form of DIF is justification bias: to justify the fact that they don’t work, non-working respondents may classify a given health problem as a more serious work limitation than working respondents. In this paper we use anchoring vignettes to identify justification bias and other forms of DIF across countries and socio-economic groups among older workers in the U.S. and Europe. Generally, we find differences in response scales across countries, partly related to social insurance generosity and employment protection. Furthermore, we find significant evidence of justification bias in the U.S. but not in Europe, suggesting differences in social norms concerning work.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 15245.

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Date of creation: Aug 2009
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15245

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  1. Arie Kapteyn & James Smith & Arthur van Soest & James Banks, 2007. "Labor Market Status and Transitions During the Pre-Retirement Years: Learning from International Differences," Working Papers wp149, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
  2. Arthur Van Soest & Liam Delaney & Colm Harmon & Arie Kapteyn & James P. Smith, 2007. "Validating the Use of Vignettes for Subjective Threshold Scales," Working Papers 200714, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
  3. John Bound, 1991. "Self-Reported Versus Objective Measures of Health in Retirement Models," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(1), pages 106-138.
  4. Arie Kapteyn & James P. Smith & Arthur van Soest, 2005. "Self-reported Work Disability in the US and The Netherlands," Labor and Demography 0504006, EconWPA.
  5. Kreider, Brent & Pepper, John V., 2007. "Disability and Employment: Reevaluating the Evidence in Light of Reporting Errors," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 102, pages 432-441, June.
  6. Böckerman, Petri & Ilmakunnas, Pekka, 2007. "Unemployment and self-assessed health: Evidence from panel data," MPRA Paper 1798, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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Cited by:
  1. Ricardo Reis & Hyunseung Oh, 2011. "Targeted Transfers and the Fiscal Response to the Great Recession," Discussion Papers 1011-10, Columbia University, Department of Economics.
  2. Richard W. Johnson & Melissa M. Favreault & Corina Mommaerts, 2009. "Work Ability and the Social Insurance Safety Net in the Years Prior to Retirement," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2009-28, Center for Retirement Research, revised Nov 2009.

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