Working Paper: NBER ID: w10740
Authors: Christine Jolls; JJ Prescott
Abstract: Studies of the effects of employment protection frequently examine protective legislation as a whole. From a policy reform perspective, however, it is often critical to know which particular aspect of the legislation is responsible for its observed effects. The American with Disabilities Act (ADA), a 1990 federal law covering over 40 million Americans, is a clear case in point. Several empirical studies have suggested that the passage of the ADA reduced rather than increased employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. To the extent this is true, it is crucial to credibly disentangle the different features of this complex and multi-faceted law. Separately evaluating the distinct aspects of the ADA is important not only for determining how the law might best be reformed if some aspects of it produce negative employment effects, but also for improving our understanding of the potential consequences of ADA-like provisions in race and other civil rights laws. This paper exploits state-level variation in pre-ADA legal regimes governing disability discrimination to separately estimate the employment effects of each of the ADA's two primary substantive provisions. We find strong evidence that the immediate post-enactment employment effects of the ADA are attributable to its requirement of "reasonable accommodations" for disabled employees rather than to its potential imposition of firing costs for such employees. Moreover, the pattern of the ADA's effects across states suggests, contrary to widely discussed prior findings based on national-level data, that declining disabled employment after the immediate post-ADA period reflects other factors rather than the ADA itself.
Keywords: Employment Protection; Disability Discrimination; Americans with Disabilities Act
JEL Codes: I18; J18; J21; J23; J71; J78; K31
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| long-term effects of ADA (I12) | differ from short-term impacts (F69) |
| ADA's requirement for reasonable accommodations (J14) | significant decline in disabled employment (J68) |
| imposition of the reasonable accommodations requirement (K38) | observed decline in disabled employment (J68) |
| ADA's traditional antidiscrimination prohibition (J71) | little to no effect on disabled employment (J68) |
| declines in disabled employment after ADA enactment (J68) | not causally linked to ADA (Y80) |
| ADA (Y20) | declines in disabled employment (immediate aftermath) (J68) |