Economic Disadvantage Amongst Disabled People: consequence of selection or disability?

Abstract

Disabled working-age people face considerable economic disadvantage compared to working-age people without a disability. But to what extent is this disadvantage associated with the type of people who become disabled, the selection process? And to what extent is it the consequence of the disability itself? We provide answers to these questions and examine how they vary according to whether a person experiences a temporary or persistent disability. The paper provides the first detailed analysis in Britain of these issues from a longitudinal perspective. We use data from the first eight waves (1991/8) of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).