Disability Insurance: Error Rates and Gender Differences
Using HRS data matched with Social Security administrative data, we document large gender differences in disability insurance programs admission rates and type I error rates. In particular, women who apply for DI/SSI are 13 percentage point less likely to be awarded benefits than men, controlling for health, occupation and a host of demographic characteristics. Moreover, women who self-report to be disabled are 20 percentage points more likely to be rejected than observationally similar men. We investigate whether these gender differences can be explained by heterogeneity in underlying unobserved health, differences in disability perceptions, higher noise-to-signal ratios, or SSA evaluators’ assessment bias. We find little support for the first three explanations, and some indirect support for the latter.
Date: 31 January 2019, 13:00 (Thursday, 3rd week, Hilary 2019)
Venue: Manor Road Building, Manor Road OX1 3UQ
Venue Details: Seminar Room C
Speakers: Hamish Low (University of Oxford), Luigi Pistaferri (Stanford University)
Organising department: Department of Economics
Part of: Department of Economics Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Melis Clark