TY - JOUR
T1 - Federal policy and the rise in disability enrollment
T2 - Evidence for the Veterans Affairs' Disability Compensation program
AU - Duggan, Mark
AU - Rosenheck, Robert
AU - Singleton, Perry
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2010/5
Y1 - 2010/5
N2 - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs compensates 13 percent of the nation's military veterans for service-related disabilities through the Disability Compensation (DC) program. In 2001, a legislative change made it easier for Vietnam veterans to receive benefits for diabetes associated with military service. In this paper, we investigate this policy's effect on DC enrollment and expenditures as well as the behavioral response of potential beneficiaries. Our findings demonstrate that the policy increased DC enrollment by 6 percentage points among Vietnam veterans and that an additional 1.7 percent experienced an increase in their DC benefits, which increased annual program expenditures by $2.85 billion in 2007. Using individual-level data from the Veterans Supplement to the Current Population Survey, we find that the induced increase in DC enrollment had little average impact on the labor supply or health status of Vietnam veterans but did reduce labor supply among their spouses.
AB - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs compensates 13 percent of the nation's military veterans for service-related disabilities through the Disability Compensation (DC) program. In 2001, a legislative change made it easier for Vietnam veterans to receive benefits for diabetes associated with military service. In this paper, we investigate this policy's effect on DC enrollment and expenditures as well as the behavioral response of potential beneficiaries. Our findings demonstrate that the policy increased DC enrollment by 6 percentage points among Vietnam veterans and that an additional 1.7 percent experienced an increase in their DC benefits, which increased annual program expenditures by $2.85 billion in 2007. Using individual-level data from the Veterans Supplement to the Current Population Survey, we find that the induced increase in DC enrollment had little average impact on the labor supply or health status of Vietnam veterans but did reduce labor supply among their spouses.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77956038685&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77956038685&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/648385
DO - 10.1086/648385
M3 - Article
C2 - 20827851
AN - SCOPUS:77956038685
VL - 53
SP - 379
EP - 398
JO - Journal of Law and Economics
JF - Journal of Law and Economics
SN - 0022-2186
IS - 2
ER -