Cornell University Department of Economics

• Research Interests
• Health and Disability
• Income Inequality
• Other Research

Publications on Health and Disabilities

Trends in the Relative Household Income of Working-Age Men with Work Limitations: Correcting the Record Using Internal Current Population Survey Data
Joint with Richard Burkhauser

Journal of Disability Policy Studies 20 (3), 162-169
CES Working Paper Version (CES-WP-08-05)
Abstract: Previous research measuring the economic well-being of working-age men with work limitations relative to such men without work limitations in the public use March Current Population Survey (CPS) systematically understates the mean household income of both groups; overstates the relative household income of those with work limitations; and understates the decline in their relative household income over time. Using the internal March CPS, we demonstrate this by creating a cell mean series beginning in 1975 that provides the mean reported income of all topcoded persons for each source of income in the public use March CPS data. Using our cell mean series with the public use March CPS, we closely match the yearly mean income of working-age men with and without work limitations over the period 1987-2004 in the internal data and show that this match is superior to ones using alternative methods of correcting for topcoding currently used in the disability literature. We then provide levels and trends in the relative income of working-age men with work limitations from 1980-2006, the earliest year in the March CPS that such comparisons can be made.

Working Papers on Health and Disabilities

The Influence of Peers on Adolescents' Weight and Exercise Decisions

Abstract: Much attention has been paid recently to the importance of peers in understanding weight outcomes of adolescents. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I attempt to better understand this relationship by examining the influence of peers on adolescent physical activity decisions. After controlling for community differences, I find that adolescents' decisions to exercise are positively influenced by the frequency with which their peers exercise and that these peer effects for exercise levels are evident in both male and female adolescents. When looking at the sedentary activity of watching television, however, no similar peer effects exist.

The Great Transformation in Who is Expected to Work in the United States and How it Changed the Lives of Single Mothers and People with Disabilities
Joint with Richard Burkhauser, Mary Daly, and Joyce Kwok

Michigan Retirement Research Center Working Paper 2008-187
Abstract: In the 1990s, social expectations of single mothers shifted towards the notion that most should, could, and would work, if given the proper incentives. This shift in expectations culminated in the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996, commonly known as welfare reform. As a result, ADFC/TANF caseloads fell along with cash transfers to single mothers who did not work. A decade later the earnings and household income of single mothers are significantly higher and moving more in synch with the U.S. economy. In stark contrast and despite espoused goals to the contrary, public policies toward working age men and women with disabilities have remained imbued with the notion that most cannot and thus, would not work, no matter what incentives they faced. As a result, SSDI/SSI expenditures and caseloads have increased and the earnings and household income of working age men and women with disabilities have fallen, leaving them even further behind the average working age American than they were a decade ago. Using data from the Current Population Survey we follow the economic well-being and employment of single mothers and working age men and women with disabilities over the past two major United States business cycles (1982-1993 and 1993-2004) and show that despite the dramatic decline in AFDC/TANF funding, single mothers’ economic well-being, labor earnings and employment all have risen substantially. In contrast, despite the dramatic increase in SSDI/SSI funding, the economic wellbeing of working age men and women with disabilities remained stagnant, as their labor earnings and employment plummeted.