Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51589 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5412
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper examines how a change in the generosity of one social assistance program generates spillovers onto other social assistance programs. We exploit an age discontinuity in the stringency of the 1993 Dutch disability reforms to estimate the causal effect of exit from disability insurance (DI) on participation in other social assistance programs. We find strong evidence of social support shopping: 43 percent of those induced to leave DI due to the reform receive an alternative form of social assistance two years after the implementation of the reform. As a result, for each Euro saved in DI benefits, the government has to spend an extra 60 cents in other social assistance programs. This crowd-out rate grows from 60% to 69% if we also take into account the response of the partners' of those affected by the DI reform. The crowd-out effect declines over time, but is still 25% eight years after the reform.
Subjects: 
crowd-out
spillover effects
social insurance
income assistance
welfare
regression discontinuity
administrative data
JEL: 
H53
J22
I38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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