Abstract
A higher proportion of workingage persons receive disability assistance in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands than in other European countries. Whereas current research emphasizes the connection between disability assistance and rates of labor force exit, to date there has been no exploration of how welfare state context influences individual self-reported disability. Using nationally representative data from 15 countries (n = 88, 478), I find that residents of generous welfare states are significantly more likely to report a disability net of self-reported health, sociodemographic, and labor force characteristics and, notably, that this association extends to younger and more educated workers. I argue that welfare state context may directly shape what it means to be disabled, which may have consequences for evaluations of welfare state performance and social exclusion.
Highlights
A higher proportion of working- age persons receive disability assistance in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands than in other European countries
Given the empirical consensus that residents of these countries are among the healthiest in the world, economists assert that the generosity of disability insurance programs for displaced workers, relative to unemployment insurance benefits, is the driving force behind the higher rates of disability assistance in these countries (Borsch-Supan 2007; OECD 2010)
The graphic shows that there is considerable cross-national variation in the proportion of working-age persons reporting a disability, with nine percent reporting a disability in Italy and Spain, compared to 25 percent and 23 percent in Finland and Sweden respectively
Summary
A higher proportion of working- age persons receive disability assistance in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands than in other European countries. I show that the odds of reporting a disability are significantly higher among residents of Nordic welfare states, net of a host of individual sociodemographic and labor force characteristics.
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