To include or not to include? Firm employment decisions with respect to the German disabled worker quota

This paper analyzes whether financial disincentives affect firm demand for disabled workers. In Germany, firms must pay a noncompliance fine if they do not meet their legal quota for disabled workers. I exploit a threshold in this quota: Firms with fewer than 40 employees are required to employ one disabled worker, whereas firms with 40 or more employees must employ two disabled workers. Using administrative firm data, my results suggest that firms respond partially to the threshold and employ 0.388 more disabled workers when they are located just above the threshold. The effect remains positive after correcting for bunching behavior.