Social Interactions and Disability Benefits: What Can We Learn from Layoffs?

社交互动和残疾福利：我们可以从裁员中学到什么？

• 批准号: 0417418
• 负责人: Mari Rege
• 金额: $ 17.99万
• 依托单位: Case Western Reserve University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-08-01 至 2007-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0417418&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Social; Interactions; Disability; Benefits; What

Between 1984 and 2001, the share of non-elderly adults receiving cash benefits under the Social Security Disability Insurance program (DI) in the US rose by 60 percent to 5.3 million beneficiaries. As a result, total outlays under DI exceeded $65 billion in 2002, comprising almost 3.4% of the U.S. federal budget. This research empirically investigates the extent to which social interactions affect participation in disability programs such as DI using a unique Norwegian data set. Social interaction effects could help explain the wide variation in DI participation across regions and over time. The magnitude of such effects is critically important for predicting the impact of DI policy and economic shocks on DI participation rates. Social interaction effects refer to the impact that the behavior of one individual has on the behavior of another. In the context of DI, this interdependence could, for example, arise because of social norms. Social norms against DI utilization can reduce participation rates by imposing a utility cost or stigma on recipients. As DI use increases among one's peers, this stigma is expected to decline, thereby increasing the propensity to apply for DI benefits for members of high-utilization peer groups. Identifying social interaction effects in observational data is notoriously difficult due to suspicions of omitted variable bias. This problem will be addressed using a rich 11-year panel dataset containing disability participation records for every person in Norway. A novel instrumental variable (IV) strategy will be employed, using previous years peer groups layoffs as an instrument for changes in-group participation rates. Theintuition behind this approach is that f social interaction effects exist, peer groups disproportionately hit by layoffs should exhibit a relative increase in disability applications even among members who were not themselves laid off. The results of this research could provide important insights into the formulation of social safety net programs in the US.

1984至2001年间，在美国，根据社会保障残疾保险计划(DI)领取现金福利的非老年成年人的比例增加了60%，达到530万受益人。因此，2002年直接投资项下的总支出超过650亿美元，几乎占美国联邦预算的3.4%。这项研究使用一个独特的挪威数据集，实证地调查了社会互动对参与残疾项目(如DI)的影响程度。社会互动效应可以帮助解释不同地区和不同时间参与DI的广泛差异。这种影响的大小对于预测直接投资政策和经济冲击对直接投资参与率的影响至关重要。社会互动效应是指一个人的行为对另一个人的行为产生的影响。例如，在直接投资方面，这种相互依赖可能是由于社会规范而产生的。反对直接投资使用的社会规范可以通过将公用事业成本或污名强加给接受者来降低参与率。随着同龄人对依赖注入的使用增加，这种耻辱预计会下降，从而增加高利用率同级组成员申请依赖注入福利的倾向。众所周知，在观测数据中识别社会相互作用的影响是困难的，因为人们怀疑存在遗漏的变量偏差。这一问题将使用包含挪威每个人的残疾参与记录的丰富的11年专家小组数据集来解决。将采用一种新的工具变量(IV)策略，使用前几年同行团体的裁员作为改变团体参与率的工具。这种方法背后的直觉是，如果存在社会互动效应，受到裁员不成比例打击的同龄人群体即使在本身没有被解雇的成员中，残疾申请也应该相对增加。这项研究的结果可以为美国社会安全网计划的制定提供重要的见解。