Working Paper: NBER ID: w21379
Authors: David Neumark; Joanne Song; Patrick Button
Abstract: We explore the effects of disability discrimination laws on hiring of older workers. A concern with anti-discrimination laws is that they may reduce hiring by raising the cost of terminations and – in the specific case of disability discrimination laws – raising the cost of employment because of the need to accommodate disabled workers. Moreover, disability discrimination laws can affect non-disabled older workers because they are fairly likely to develop work-related disabilities, yet are not protected by these laws. Using state variation in disability discrimination protections, we find little or no evidence that stronger disability discrimination laws lower the hiring of non-disabled older workers. We similarly find no evidence of adverse effects of disability discrimination laws on hiring of disabled older workers.
Keywords: older workers; hiring; disability discrimination
JEL Codes: J14; J71; J78
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Stronger disability discrimination laws (J79) | Hiring rates of nondisabled older workers (J14) |
| Stronger disability discrimination laws (J79) | Hiring rates of disabled older workers (J14) |
| Stronger disability discrimination laws (J79) | Employer behavior regarding hiring older workers (J71) |
| Stronger disability discrimination laws (J79) | Hiring rates of older nondisabled workers (J14) |