Working Paper: NBER ID: w23862
Authors: Johanna Catherine Maclean; Keshar M. Ghimire; Lauren Hersch Nicholas
Abstract: We study the effect of recent legalization of recreational marijuana use (RMLs) in the United States on Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income claiming, proxied by new applications and new benedficiaries, over the period 2001 to 2019. We combine administrative caseload data from the Social Security Administration with state policy changes using two-way fixed effects regression. We find that RML adoption increases new disability application rates. However, there is no change in new beneficiaries post-RML. We provide suggestive evidence that the observed changes in applications post-RML are potentially driven by increases in marijuana misuse and selective migration.
Keywords: marijuana legalization; disability claiming; social security; disability insurance
JEL Codes: I1; I12; I18; J22
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increase in new disability applications (J14) | no increase in new beneficiaries (H53) |
| RML adoption (C59) | increase in marijuana use (I12) |
| increase in marijuana use (I12) | influence on disability claiming behavior (I12) |
| RML adoption (C59) | selective migration to RML states (R23) |
| RML adoption (C59) | increase in new disability applications (J14) |