IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mrr/papers/wp404.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Setting Expectations for Claimant Ability to Work: Investigating the Occupational Requirements and Functional Capacity of Workers with Early Onset Health Conditions

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew J. Houtenville

    (University of New Hampshire)

  • Deniz Ozabaci

    (University of New Hampshire)

Abstract

When determining a claimant’s eligibility for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, the Social Security Administration (SSA) assesses whether his/her health condition (e.g., back/spine problems) sufficiently impairs his/her functional capacity (e.g., ability to lift/carry weight) so that the he/she is unable to meet the requirements (e.g., need to lift/carry 25 pounds) of his/her previous occupation and other possible occupations. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS), we compare the occupational requirements of workers with and without a given health condition in order to understand what to expect from claimants with that health condition. Although sample sizes are limiting and ORS data collection is not yet complete, we find some evidence that workers’ occupational requirements accommodate their health conditions. This evidence suggests that claimants with these health conditions may be able to fulfill the requirements in these occupations. We do find some evidence of the opposite causality: Workers may experience health conditions later in life from occupational requirements that may have caused their health conditions. This evidence is a caution against using data without onset information to inform claimant-ability expectations. Overall, this report provides evidence that national surveys with occupation, health, and function questions have the potential to inform revisions to the SSA disability determination process by providing information on people with health conditions who are working and meeting the requirements of a variety of occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew J. Houtenville & Deniz Ozabaci, 2019. "Setting Expectations for Claimant Ability to Work: Investigating the Occupational Requirements and Functional Capacity of Workers with Early Onset Health Conditions," Working Papers wp404, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp404
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mrdrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/papers/pdf/wp404.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jianting Hu & Kajal Lahiri & Denton R. Vaughan & Bernard Wixon, 2001. "A Structural Model Of Social Security'S Disability Determination Process," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(2), pages 348-361, May.
    2. Lahiri, Kajal & Song, Jae & Wixon, Bernard, 2008. "A model of Social Security Disability Insurance using matched SIPP/Administrative data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1-2), pages 4-20, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kajal Lahiri & Chuanming Gao & Bernard Wixon, 2020. "Value of Sample Separation Information in a Sequential Probit Model," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 19(2), pages 151-176, December.
    2. Eric French & Jae Song, 2014. "The Effect of Disability Insurance Receipt on Labor Supply," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 291-337, May.
    3. Laurence Jacquet, 2014. "Tagging and redistributive taxation with imperfect disability monitoring," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 42(2), pages 403-435, February.
    4. Hugo Benitez-Silva & Moshe Buchinsky & John Rust, 2004. "How Large are the Classification Errors in the Social Security Disability Award Process?," NBER Working Papers 10219, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Moore, Timothy J., 2015. "The employment effects of terminating disability benefits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 30-43.
    6. Olivia S. Mitchell & John W. R. Phillips, 2000. "Retirement Responses to Early Social Security Benefit Reductions," Working Papers wp006, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    7. Lahiri, Kajal & Gao, Jian, 2002. "Bayesian analysis of nested logit model by Markov chain Monte Carlo," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 111(1), pages 103-133, November.
    8. Chen, Susan & van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 2008. "The work disincentive effects of the disability insurance program in the 1990s," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 757-784, February.
    9. Kajal Lahiri & Zulkarnain Pulungan, 2006. "Health Inequality and Its Determinants in New York," Discussion Papers 06-03, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
    10. Benitez-Silva, Hugo & Buchinsky, Moshe & Chan, Hiu Man & Rust, John & Sheidvasser, Sofia, 1999. "An empirical analysis of the social security disability application, appeal, and award process," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 147-178, June.
    11. Singleton, Perry, 2012. "Earnings of rejected applicants to the Social Security Disability Insurance program," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 147-150.
    12. Olivia S. Mitchell & John W.R. Phillips, 2002. "Applications, Denials, and Appeals for Social Security Disability Insurance," Working Papers wp032, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    13. Eric French & Jae Song, 2012. "The effect of Disability Insurance receipt on labor supply: a dynamic analysis," Working Paper Series WP-2012-12, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    14. Hugo Benítez-Silva & Moshe Buchinsky & Hiu Man Chan & Sofia Cheidvasser & John Rust, 2004. "How large is the bias in self-reported disability?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(6), pages 649-670.
    15. Erin M. Godtland & Michele Grgich & Carol Dawn Petersen & Douglas M. Sloane & Ann T Walker, 2007. "Racial Disparities In Federal Disability Benefits," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 25(1), pages 27-45, January.
    16. Kajal Lahiri & Jianting Hu, 2021. "Productive efficiency in processing social security disability claims: a look back at the 1989–95 surge," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 419-457, January.
    17. Michel, DE VROEY, 2006. "Getting Rid of Keynes ? A reflection on the history of macroeconomics," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2006051, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques.
    18. Laurence Jacquet, 2010. "Take it or Leave it: Take-up, Optimal Transfer Programs, and Monitoring," CESifo Working Paper Series 3018, CESifo.
    19. Lahiri, Kajal & Song, Jae & Wixon, Bernard, 2008. "A model of Social Security Disability Insurance using matched SIPP/Administrative data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1-2), pages 4-20, July.
    20. Obubuafo, Joyce & Gillespie, Jeffrey M. & Paudel, Krishna P. & Kim, Seon-Ae, 2006. "Knowledge, Application and Adoption of Best Management Practices by Cattle Farmers under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program - A Sequential Analysis," 2006 Annual Meeting, February 5-8, 2006, Orlando, Florida 35307, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.

    More about this item

    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:mrr:papers:wp404. 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: MRRC Administrator (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isumius.html .

    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.