Perry Singleton

Insult to Injury: Disability, Earnings, and Divorce

This study measures the longitudinal effect of disability on earnings, marriage, and divorce. The data come from the Survey of Income and Program Participation matched to administrative data on longitudinal earnings. Using event-study methods, the results show that the onset of a work-preventing disability is associated with a precipitous decline in earnings and an increase in divorce. Consistent with theory, the association between disability and divorce is greatest among young and educated males who experience a work-preventing, rather than a work-limiting, disability.

Federal policy and the rise in disability enrollment: Evidence for the Veterans Affairs' Disability Compensation program

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs compensates 13 percent of the nation’s military veterans for service‐related disabilities through the Disability Compensation (DC) program. In 2001, a legislative change made it easier for Vietnam veterans to receive benefits for diabetes associated with military service. In this paper, we investigate this policy’s effect on DC enrollment and expenditures as well as the behavioral response of potential beneficiaries. Our findings demonstrate that the policy increased DC enrollment by 6 percentage points among Vietnam veterans and that an additional 1.7 percent experienced an increase in their DC benefits, which increased annual program expenditures by

The Effect of Disability Insurance on Health Investment Evidence from the Veterans Benefits Administration’s Disability Compensation Program

2.85 billion in 2007. Using individual‐level data from the Veterans Supplement to the Current Population Survey, we find that the induced increase in DC enrollment had little average impact on the labor supply or health status of Vietnam veterans but did reduce labor supply among their spouses.

Aching to retire? The rise in the full retirement age and its impact on the social security disability rolls

I examine whether individuals respond to monetary incentives to detect latent medical conditions. The effect is identified by a policy that deemed diabetes associated with herbicide exposure a compensable disability under the Veterans Benefits Administrations Disability Compensation program. Since a diagnosis is a requisite for benefit eligibility, and nearly one-third of diabetics remain undiagnosed, the advent of disability insurance may have encouraged the detection of diabetes among the previously undiagnosed population. Evidence from the National Health Interview Survey suggests that the policy increased the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes by 3.1 percentage points among veterans.