Marijuana Legalization and Disability Claiming

23 Pages Posted: 25 Sep 2017 Last revised: 13 Sep 2024

See all articles by Catherine Maclean

Catherine Maclean

Temple University

Keshar M. Ghimire

University of Cincinnati - Blue Ash

Lauren Hersch Nicholas

Johns Hopkins University - Bloomberg School of Public Health

Date Written: September 2017

Abstract

We study the effect of recent legalization of recreational marijuana use (RMLs) in the United States on Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income claiming, proxied by new applications and new benedficiaries, over the period 2001 to 2019. We combine administrative caseload data from the Social Security Administration with state policy changes using two-way fixed effects regression. We find that RML adoption increases new disability application rates. However, there is no change in new beneficiaries post-RML. We provide suggestive evidence that the observed changes in applications post-RML are potentially driven by increases in marijuana misuse and selective migration.

Suggested Citation

Maclean, Catherine and Ghimire, Keshar and Nicholas, Lauren Hersch, Marijuana Legalization and Disability Claiming (September 2017). NBER Working Paper No. w23862, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3042418

Catherine Maclean (Contact Author)

Temple University ( email )

Philadelphia, PA 19122
United States

Keshar Ghimire

University of Cincinnati - Blue Ash ( email )

Cincinnati, OH 45221-0389
United States

Lauren Hersch Nicholas

Johns Hopkins University - Bloomberg School of Public Health ( email )

615 North Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
65
Abstract Views
758
Rank
701,813
PlumX Metrics