>"Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans
> With Disabilities Act"
>
> BY: DARON ACEMOGLU
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> Department of Economics
> National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
> JOSHUA ANGRIST
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> Department of Economics
>
>Paper ID: NBER Working Paper No. 6670
> Date: July 1, 1998
>
> Contact: DARON ACEMOGLU
> Email: Mailto:daron at mit.edu
> Postal: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> Department of Economics
> E52-371
> 50 Memorial Drive
> Cambridge, MA 02142-1347 USA
> Phone: (617)253-1927
> Fax: (617)253-1330
> Co-Auth: JOSHUA ANGRIST
> Email: Mailto:angrist at mit.edu
> Postal: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> Department of Economics
> 50 Memorial Drive
> Cambridge, MA 02142-1347 USA
>
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>
>ABSTRACT:
> The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to
> accommodate disabled workers and outlaws discrimination against
> the disabled in hiring, firing, and pay. Although the ADA was
> meant to increase employment of the disabled, it also increases
> costs for employers. The net theoretical impact turns on which
> provisions of the ADA are most important and how responsive firm
> entry and exit is to profits. Empirical results using the CPS
> suggest that the ADA had a negative effect on the employment of
> disabled men of all working ages and disabled women under age
> 40. The effects appear to be larger in medium size firms,
> possibly because small firms were exempt from the ADA. The
> effects are also larger in states where there have been more
> ADA-related discrimination charges. Estimates of effects on
> hiring and firing suggest the ADA reduced hiring of the disabled
> but did not affect separations. This weighs against a pure
> firing-costs interpretation of the ADA. Finally, there is little
> evidence of an impact on the non-disabled, suggesting that the
> adverse employment consequences of the ADA have been limited to
> the protected group.
>
>
>JEL Classification: J23, J28