Jennifer Tennant

Capturing the Elusive Working-Age Population With Disabilities Reconciling Conflicting Social Success Estimates From the Current Population Survey and American Community Survey

The purpose of this study is to examine the implications of using different approaches to estimating the U.S. working-age population with disabilities. The approaches compared are the traditional work-activity limitation question, the Census Bureau’s newer six-question sequence that does not include a work-activity limitation question, and the combination of the two. With data from the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey, the authors demonstrate that using the work-limitation question or the six-question sequence alone results in an underestimate of the size of the working-age population with disabilities (assuming the International Classification of Disability, Health, and Functioning conceptualization of disabilities). Furthermore, the authors show that using the sample of the working-age population with disabilities identified by the six-question sequence will lead to biased estimates of key social policy success parameters; in particular, it will overestimate their employment rates and underestimate the share that are receiving Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income-Disabled Adults benefits relative to the broader sample that includes a work-limitation question and the six-question sequence.

Tax structure and revenue instability: the Great Recession and the states

The Great Recession had the most severe impact on state tax revenues of any downturn since the Great Depression. We hypothesize that states with more progressive tax structures are more vulnerable to economic downturns, and that progressivity and income volatility may interact to amplify the recession’s fiscal impact. We find that, while potential revenue exposure is greater in more progressive states, the most important source of variation was differences in income concentration and capital gains shares in the top 5 percent of taxpayers. Though the interaction between income volatility and high tax burdens at the top did produce large decreases in tax revenue in a few states, tax progressivity accounted for little of the overall interstate variation in revenue volatility.JEL codesH24; H71

Impacts of the 2010 VA PTSD Rule Change on Veterans’ Disability Compensation and Reported Cognitive Disability:

In July 2010, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) simplified the process of obtaining veterans’ disability compensation (DC) for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who served in combat zones but not in combat roles. In this article, we use data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) Veterans Supplement to estimate the impacts of the change in the VA PTSD rule on DC benefit receipt and self-reported cognitive disability. We hypothesize that the easing of eligibility rules led to an increase in DC receipt among veterans who served in combat zones but not in combat roles. It may also have led to reduced stigma among veterans with regard to reporting cognitive disability. Our results are consistent with these hypotheses. Self-reported rates of VA disability and DC receipt increased significantly among combat zone veterans. Self-reported VA disability rating and experience of cognitive disability also increased, but these increases were not statistically significant. During the same period, the rate of self-reported disability other than cognitive disability remained the same.

Spillover Effects of the ADA: The Case of Obesity

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 has expanded employment opportunities of numerous persons with disabilities, although its effect on employment for disabled individuals has been mixed. With the strong correlation between disability and obesity, the ADA has likely had spillover effects through several court cases related to disability and obesity. The authors create a data set that combines state-level data on cases pertaining to the ADA with an individual-level health data set representative of the U.S. population: the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1993–2007. Controlling for state-level unemployment rates, the authors find little effect of these state-level disability policies on the probability of employment and the probability of being a student. Further analysis reveals that the occurrence of the court cases increases the probability that obese individuals report having a disability, perhaps paving the path for the creation of an environment in which obese individuals with disabilities are able to collect disability benefits.