Income Security Policy Paper No. 6
A Cautionary Tale of European Disability Policies: Lessons for the United States
Leo Aarts, Richard V. Burkhauser, and Philip de Jong
March 1992
Abstract: Variations in the size of the population
receiving disability payments across countries
cannot be explained by simple differences in
health. Rather, the process to disability is
shaped by both social and medical factors.
When governments ignore this reality, a
policy-generated disability epidemic is
possible. This paper compares disability
policies in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany,
and the United States. It argues that the
extraordinary increase in Dutch disability
rolls in the 1970s was caused by a general
government policy to reduce official
unemployment. And that by the end of the
1980s, this policy had left Holland with a
hidden unemployment rate that was twice its
official rate and three times the unemployment
rates in the United States and Germany.
A revised version of this paper
appears as "The Dutch Disease: Lessons
for the United States," Regulation,
15(2)(Spring 1992): 75-86. Those interested in
this work should see that journal.
Income
Security Policy Paper Series
Aging
Studies Program Page
Free CPR Publications Subscription
