10.17889/E111116V1
Liebman, Jeffrey B.
Replication data for: Understanding the Increase in Disability Insurance Benefit Receipt in the United States
ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
2015
10.1257/jep.29.2.123
10.1257/jep.29.2.123
1
The share of working-age Americans receiving disability benefits from the federal Disability Insurance (DI) program has increased significantly in recent decades, from 2.2 percent in the late 1970s to 3.6 percent in the years immediately preceding the 2007-2009 recession and 4.6 percent in 2013. With the federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund currently projected to be depleted in 2016, Congressional action of some sort is likely to occur within the next several years. It is therefore a good time to sort out the competing explanations for the increase in disability benefit receipt and to review some of the ideas that economists have put forth for reforming US disability programs.