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Norwegian

Disability in the Welfare State: An Unemployment Problem in Disguise?

Link to article:

[PDF]

Authors:

Bratsberg, Bernt, Elisabeth Fevang and Knut Røed

Year:

2010

Reference:

Andre skrifter
IZA DP No. 4897

Summary

Economies with low unemployment often have high disability rates. In Norway, the permanent disability insurance rolls outnumber registered unemployment by four to one. Based on administrative register data matched with firms’ financial statements and closure data collected from bankruptcy proceedings, we show that a large fraction of Norwegian disability insurance claims can be directly attributed to job displacement and other adverse shocks to employment opportunities. For men, we estimate that job loss more than doubles the risk of entry to permanent disability and that displacements account for fully 28 percent of all new disability insurance claims. We conclude that unemployment and disability insurance are close substitutes.

JEL:

H55, I12, I38, J63, J65

Keywords:

disability, displacement, social insurance, employment opportunities

Project:

Oppdragsgiver: Norges forskningsråd
Oppdragsgivers prosjektnr.:
Frisch prosjekt: 1156 - Labour market exclusion