The Effect of Physical Disability on Employment

The relationship between physical disability and employment is explored using microdata for older working‐age women in the 2016 Irish Census of Population and historical data on the incidence of infectious diseases. Two‐stage least squares and recursive bivariate probit estimations are employed to account for the potential endogeneity of disability. Research in the medical literature shows that exposure to pertussis in infancy might lead to subsequent disability. Drawing on this literature, the incidence rates of pertussis that were prevailing in respondents' counties of birth when they were in infancy are used as an instrument for physical disability. A negative relationship between disability and employment is found.