Economics Professors Lead New Grant on Pandemic's Affect on Disability Applications

The COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated health and economic burden, has unfolded and continues to progress quite differently throughout the U.S. Variation across states in the timing and magnitude of the pandemic may have affected the dynamics of disability applications, and understanding these dynamics is critical to formulating effective public policies in this area. The Social Security Administration recently funded a project on this topic led by Professors Pinka Chatterji and Kajal Lahiri. The project, entitled "Explaining Inter-state Differences in Disability Applications during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” is part of the NBER Research and Disability Research Center for the coming year.