Do Federal Disability Insurance Participants Exaggerate Their Health Problems? A Study Using Anchoring Vignettes
Essays in Honor of Subal Kumbhakar
ISBN: 978-1-83797-874-8, eISBN: 978-1-83797-873-1
Publication date: 5 April 2024
Abstract
The authors examine whether or not applicants and recipients of federal disability insurance (DI) inflate their self-assessed health (SAH) problems relative to others. To do this, the authors employ a technique which uses anchoring vignettes. This approach allows them to examine how various cohorts of the population interpret survey questions associated with subjective self-assessments of health. The results of the analysis suggest that DI participants do inflate the severity of a given health problem, but by a small but significant degree. This tendency to exaggerate the severity of disability problems is much more apparent among those with more education (especially those with a college degree). In contrast, racial minorities tend to underestimate severity ratings for a given disability vignette when compared to their white peers.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health (grant number 1 P20 MD003373). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities or the National Institutes of Health.
Citation
Lahiri, K. and Noroski, P. (2024), "Do Federal Disability Insurance Participants Exaggerate Their Health Problems? A Study Using Anchoring Vignettes", Parmeter, C.F., Tsionas, M.G. and Wang, H.-J. (Ed.) Essays in Honor of Subal Kumbhakar (Advances in Econometrics, Vol. 46), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 25-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0731-905320240000046003
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024 Kajal Lahiri and Paul Noroski