Moments for the demographic and impairment variables are based on information available in the application quarter.
One year prior to the application quarter, the SSDI/SSI receipt rates equal 15% for both the treated and untreated.
In contrast, the SSI receipt rate slowly increases (from around 10% to 17%) prior to the application quarter and then remains stable at around 17% thereafter.
For example, among applicants receiving SSDI/SSI, the employment rates are 0.15 for both the untreated and treated one year prior to the application quarter.
Thus, for each DARS applicant, we observe quarterly employment, earnings, and disability insurance receipt for many years before and after the application quarter in SFY 2000.
For those with mental and physical impairments, the rates of SSDI receipt increase steadily over time except for a sharp discrete jump in the SSDI utilization rate for the PI subsample beginning in quarter zero, the VR application quarter.
By comparing the differences in SSDI/SSI receipt between the treated and untreated, before and after the application quarter, the fixed-effects regression model provides an elegant way to incorporate information from the pre-application data.
Perhaps the most striking finding is that, prior to the application quarter, employment rates of the treated and untreated are nearly identical, while, just afterwards, the treated experience a pronounced increase in employment rates.
For example, among the cognitively impaired subgroup, VR services are associated with a 9.8% drop in the rate of SSI receipt for those who received SSDI/SSI prior the application quarter.
For example, for the physically impaired, VR services are associated with a 1.5% increase in the probability of SSDI/SSI receipt for those who received disability insurance prior to the SFY2000 application and a 9.0% decrease in the probability for those who did not receive disability insurance prior to the VR application quarter.
Thus far, the regression models focus on the post-application quarters.
