The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #48733

Douglas Kruse, PhD and Lisa Schur, JD, PhD. School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, 94 Rockafeller Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, 732-445-5991, dkruse@rci.rutgers.edu

Learning Objectives: How has the employment of people with disabilities changed since passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? While the ADA was designed to increase employment by prohibiting discrimination and increasing workplace accessibility, it has been criticized for decreasing employment of people with disabilities by raising hiring and firing costs. Assessing employment trends is complicated by difficulties in measuring disability, particularly in identifying who is covered by the ADA, and by changes in public disability program coverage. The standard work disability measure has been criticized for being over- and under-inclusive of those who are protected by the ADA.

Methods: Using SIPP data, we follow the approaches of Acemoglu and Angrist (1998) and Deleire (2000) to analyze the impact of the ADA on the employment of people with disabilities. The SIPP permit alternative measures of disability, and we check the sensitivity of previous studies to these alternative definitions.

Findings: We find decreased employment among those reporting work disabilities in the first few years after the ADA was passed, but increased employment when using a broader measure of ADA coverage (functional and activity limitations that do not prevent work). Compositional changes in the population reporting work disabilities appear to be an important factor in the results. State-by-state variation in labor market tightness is used to find that people with disabilities may have especially pro-cyclical employment, but the contrary results in overall employment trends remain after accounting for labor market tightness.

Conclusions: Given the problems in measuring who is covered by the ADA, there is reason to be cautious of both positive and negative findings.

Learning Objectives:

• How has the employment of people with disabilities changed since passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? While the ADA was designed to increase employment by prohibiting discrimination and increasing workplace accessibility, it has been criticized for decreasing employment of people with disabilities by raising hiring and firing costs. Assessing employment trends is complicated by difficulties in measuring disability, particularly in identifying who is covered by the ADA, and by changes in public disability program coverage. The standard work disability measure has been criticized for being over- and under-inclusive of those who are protected by the ADA.

Keywords: Disability Policy, Economic Analysis

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.