Employment Among Adolescent Children of SSDI Recipients

Abstract

I explore the association between parental work-limiting disabilities (WLD) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) receipt and the labor supply of their adolescent children. Using the 2014-2021 waves of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I estimate that having a parent who receives SSDI benefits is associated with a 22 percent reduction in the odds that the child worked during the school months of the previous calendar year relative to teens whose parents did not receive benefits. Along the intensive margin, parental SSDI receipt is correlated with a more than 20 percent reduction in total hours worked over the previous year. These effects are almost entirely driven by teenage boys, suggesting a gendered response to parental disability and SSDI benefit receipt. JEL Classification: I38 , J13 , J22