Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/126639 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9549
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
A key component for estimating the optimal size and structure of disability insurance (DI) programs is the elasticity of DI claiming with respect to benefit generosity. Yet, in many countries, including the United States, all workers face identical benefit schedules, which are a function of one's labor market history, making it difficult to separate the effect of the benefit level from the effect of unobserved preferences for work on individuals' claiming decisions. To circumvent this problem, we exploit exogenous variation in DI benefits in Austria arising from several reforms to its DI and old age pension system in the 1990s and 2000s. We use comprehensive administrative social security records data on the universe of Austrian workers to compute benefit levels under six different regimes, allowing us to identify and precisely estimate the elasticity of DI claiming with respect to benefit generosity. We find that, over this time period, a one percent increase in potential DI benefits was associated with a 1.2 percent increase in DI claiming.
Subjects: 
disability insurance
benefit generosity
labor force withdrawal
claiming elasticity
JEL: 
H55
J14
J22
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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