The disability employment paradox in developing countries: recent evidence from Lebanon

Abstract

ABSTRACT The degree and nature of participation of disabled persons in the labor market have many direct and indirect effects on their living standards and quality of life. Therefore, this is a critical area for investigation and policy concern. This paper seeks to quantify the relationship between disability and labor force participation in Lebanon, a topic that has not received much attention in the literature. The empirical analysis is performed using an individual-level data set obtained from the Lebanese Labor Force and Household Conditions Survey (2019). A firthlogit model was estimated in order to capture the relationship between disability and employment status. The empirical findings reveal that people who report a disability condition have a much lower likelihood of participating in the labor force. This finding is robust even after controlling for other characteristics such as age, marital status and education. We propose several policy recommendations based on our findings that might be helpful to the inclusion of disabled people in the labor market.