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Expanding Employment Discrimination Protections for Individuals with Disabilities: Evidence from California

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  • Patrick Button

    (Department of Economics, Tulane University)

Abstract

Effective 2001, California passed the Prudence Kay Poppink Act which broadened California's disability employment discrimination law to cover individuals with less severe disabilities by lowering the burden of proof to establish a disability. I estimate how this act affected the labor market outcomes for individuals with disabilities using both difference-in-differences and difference-in-differences-in-differences regression analyses and data from the Current Population Survey. The results suggest that the act significantly increased employment, with the effect persisting at least partially up to six years later.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Button, 2016. "Expanding Employment Discrimination Protections for Individuals with Disabilities: Evidence from California," Working Papers 1601, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:tul:wpaper:1601
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    File URL: http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul1601r.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Button, Patrick, 2019. "Do tax incentives affect business location and economic development? Evidence from state film incentives," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 315-339.
    2. David Neumark & Ian Burn & Patrick Button & Nanneh Chehras, 2019. "Do State Laws Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Reduce Age Discrimination in Hiring? Evidence from a Field Experiment," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(2), pages 373-402.
    3. Ercolani, Marco G. & Lazarova, Emiliya, 2024. "The UK Disability Discrimination Act 2005: Consequences for the education and employment of older children," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Listo, Ariel & Muñoz, Ercio A. & Sansone, Dario, 2025. "Measuring the Sources of Taste-Based Discrimination Using List Experiments," IZA Discussion Papers 17976, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Douglas Kruse & Lisa Schur & Sean Rogers & Mason Ameri, 2018. "Why Do Workers with Disabilities Earn Less? Occupational Job Requirements and Disability Discrimination," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 798-834, December.
    7. Button, Patrick & Khan, Mashfiqur R. & Penn, Mary, 2022. "Do stronger employment discrimination protections decrease reliance on Social Security Disability Insurance? Evidence from the U.S. Social Security reforms," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    8. Yingzheng Yan & Qiuwang Cheng & Menglan Huang & Qiaohua Lin & Wenhe Lin, 2022. "Government Environmental Regulation and Corporate ESG Performance: Evidence from Natural Resource Accountability Audits in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-16, December.
    9. David Neumark & Ian Burn & Patrick Button & Nanneh Chehras, 2016. "Do State Laws Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Reduce Age Discrimination in Hiring? Experimental (and Nonexperimental) Evidence," Working Papers wp349, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    10. Burn, Ian & Kettler, Kyle, 2019. "The more you know, the better you’re paid? Evidence from pay secrecy bans for managers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 92-109.
    11. Ramona H. Sharma & Renée Asselin & Timothy Stainton & Rachelle Hole, 2025. "Ableism and Employment: A Scoping Review of the Literature," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-26, January.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law

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