How People With Disabilities Fare When Public Policies Change--Past, Present, and Future

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Richard V. Burkhauser, Syracuse University
Robert H. Haveman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Barbara L. Wolfe, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Description/Abstract

In this paper the authors analyze the effects of two decades of federal disability policy and macroeconomic fluctuation on the well-being of men with disabilities. Their findings indicate that both have dramatically affected the economic well-being of people with disabilities both absolutely and relative to people without disabilities. Using data from the Current Population Survey (19681988) they find that by 1987 the households of white or well-educated male heads with disabilities had fully recovered from the program cuts and recession of the early 1980s. However, to a large extent this recovery was due to additional earnings by spouses. Alternatively, the households of the doubly disadvantaged--nonwhite or poorly educated males with disabilities--did not recover from their recession depths. The authors also conclude that the new mandates on business aimed at integrating people with disabilities into society are not likely to help the doubly handicapped and that improvements in their well-being will likely depend on more generous income transfers or increased earning of those with whom they live.

Document Type

Working Paper

Date

2-1992

Language

English

Funder(s)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the Institute for Research on Poverty

Series

Income Security Policy Series

Acknowledgements

National Council on Disability Symposium on Writing National Policies on Work Disabilities.

Disciplines

Economic Policy | Economics | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Public Policy

ISSN

1061 1843

Additional Information

Policy studies paper no.4

Recommended Citation

Burkhauser, Richard V.; Haveman, Robert H.; and Wolfe, Barbara L., "How People With Disabilities Fare When Public Policies Change--Past, Present, and Future" (1992). Center for Policy Research. 412.
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/412

Source

Local Input

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.