We examine the role of ethnic networks in recession-induced SSDI take-up among immigrants in the United States. We show that immigrants from ethnic groups with high take-up rates are more likely to go on disability when jobs become scarce. This effect is concentrated among those people with good...

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) take-up tends to increase during recessions. We exploit variation across immigrant groups in the non-pecuniary costs of participating in SSDI to examine the role that costs play in applicant decisions across the business cycle. We show that immigrants...

We examine how work norms affect Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) take-up rates in response to worsening economic conditions. By focusing on immigrants in the US, we can consider the influence of work norms in a person's home country, which we argue are exogenous to labor market...