Socioeconomic factors explain racial differences in disability insurance approvals

A study in Contemporary Economic Policy examined whether racial and ethnic differences in US disability insurance approval rates reflect disparities in the determination process or broader differences in applicants' circumstances.

By linking large-scale American Community Survey data with Social Security administrative records, investigators found that most observed differences in approval rates become much smaller and largely statistically insignificant after accounting for socioeconomic, health, and demographic factors. The results suggest that differences in allowance rates are associated with other factors-such as marital status, health conditions, and pre‐disability earnings-rather than race and ethnicity.

"These results suggest that differences in allowance rates by race and ethnicity in the raw, unadjusted data are mainly due to compositional differences between groups," the authors wrote.