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Elderly immigrants' labor supply response to supplemental security income

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  • Neeraj Kaushal

    (Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Columbia University and Research Associate, National Bureau of Economics Research)

Abstract

This paper examined how the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which banned Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for the majority of elderly immigrants, affected their employment, retirement, and family incomes. The policy was found to be associated with a 3.5 percentage point (9.5 percent) increase in the employment and a 3.8 percentage point (7 percent) decrease in the retirement of foreign-born elderly men. Partly as a result of their employment response, SSI ineligibility and the consequent decline in SSI receipt did not have any statistically significant effects on the family incomes of elderly foreign-born men. Noncitizen elderly women, on the other hand, did not experience any increase in employment, and those without family support suffered a 10 to 17 percent decline in income. These findings suggest that access to SSI did not create work disincentives for noncitizen elderly women and that SSI restrictions have imposed financial hardship on those without any family support, many of whom perhaps cannot effectively increase their employment. © 2010 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Suggested Citation

  • Neeraj Kaushal, 2010. "Elderly immigrants' labor supply response to supplemental security income," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 137-162.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:29:y:2010:i:1:p:137-162
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.20482
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. George J. Borjas & Lynette Hilton, 1996. "Immigration and the Welfare State: Immigrant Participation in Means-Tested Entitlement Programs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(2), pages 575-604.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Mary J. Lopez & Sita Slavov, 2020. "Do immigrants delay retirement and social security claiming?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(10), pages 1105-1123, February.
    3. C. Yiwei Zhang & Jeffrey Hemmeter & Judd B. Kessler & Robert D. Metcalfe & Robert Weathers, 2023. "Nudging Timely Wage Reporting: Field Experimental Evidence from the U.S. Supplemental Security Income Program," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1341-1353, March.
    4. Bruce D. Meyer & Derek Wu, 2018. "The Poverty Reduction of Social Security and Means-Tested Transfers," NBER Working Papers 24567, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. East, Chloe N., 2018. "Immigrants’ labor supply response to Food Stamp access," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 202-226.
    6. Bratsberg, Bernt & Raaum, Oddbjørn & Røed, Knut, 2020. "Immigrant Responses to Social Insurance Generosity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Burns, Marguerite & Dague, Laura, 2017. "The effect of expanding Medicaid eligibility on Supplemental Security Income program participation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 20-34.
    8. Matthew Freedman & Yoonjung Kim, 2022. "Quasi‐Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Expanding Cash Welfare," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 859-890, June.

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