Description/Abstract
Variations in the size of the population receiving disability payments across countries cannot be explained by simple differences in health. Rather, the process to disability is shaped by both social and medical factors. When governments ignore this reality, a policy generated disability epidemic is possible. This paper compares disability policies in The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, and the United States. It argues that the extraordinary increase in Dutch disability rolls in the 1970s was caused by a general government policy to reduce official unemployment. And that by the end of the 1980s, this policy had left Holland with a hidden unemployment rate that was twice its official rate and three times the unemployment rates in the United States and Germany.
Document Type
Working Paper
Date
2-1992
Language
English
Series
Income Security Policy Series
Acknowledgements
Petri Hirvonen and Eskil Wadenski
Disciplines
Economic Policy | Economics | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Public Policy
ISSN
1061 1843
Recommended Citation
Arts, Leo; Burkhauser, Richard V.; and de Jong, Philip, "A Cautionary Tale of European Disability Policies: Lessons for the United States" (1992). Center for Policy Research. 410.
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/410
Source
Local Input
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Included in
Economic Policy Commons, Economics Commons, Public Policy Commons
Additional Information
Policy studies paper no.6