This is a application to create a restricted access public use data set and use it to study the influence of economic incentives on the decision to exit the labor force and enter the SSDI program for persons with well defined health conditions that meet the medical listings criteria for SSDI and hence are effectively assured of acceptance onto the SSDI rolls as long as they do not work.
Specific Aim 1. We will develop a cleaned data extract, a data dictionary and data manual for our matched NTID-SSA dataset, for our use and the use of the research community. All 5,069 National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) graduates in our dataset earned their degree between 1972-2002 and have hearing impairments that are so severe that they meet the SSA disability medical listings. The NTID data have been matched to data extracts from SSA administrative records that contain their complete earnings and program histories. We have already completed a contract with NTID and SSA that allows us to create and use the data set. The data will be housed at SSA but will be available to the researcher community Specific Aim 2. We will estimate reduced-form hazard models of the SSDI retirement decision. The analysis will include descriptive statistics, life table estimates, and hazard model estimates. The genera reduced form hazard model specification will be similar to those that we have used in our previous research. (Burkhauser, Butler, Kim and Weathers, 1999; Weathers, 1999; and Burkhauser, Butler and Weathers, 2002.) We will focus on the importance of economic incentives on the timing of movements onto the SSDI program. ? ?
