The Role of Information in Disability Insurance Application: An Analysis of the Social Security Statement Phase-In

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Armour, Philip
• 署名单位: RAND Corporation
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20160605
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 1-41
• 关键词: retirement age; earnings; HEALTH; rise

摘要

This paper exploits a natural experiment in information provision on US Disability Insurance (DI) applications: the Social Security statement. Although the effect of the statement on DI application was negligible in the general health and retirement study population, among those previously reporting a work limitation, biennial DI application rates approximately doubled. This effect was driven by previously uninformed individuals. Additional analyses show these were new applicants and were no less likely to be accepted onto DI, accounting for a substantial fraction of the rise in DI rolls from 1994 to 2004 and indicating the importance of informational frictions in disability policymaking. (JEL D83, G22, H55, J14, J28)