Nonmarket Work Among Working-Age Disability Beneficiaries: Evidence From the American Time Use Survey

More than US$100 billion is spent annually by the U.S. federal government in income maintenance in the form of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) to workers with disabilities-the majority of whom are not in the labor market. Despite this large sum, however, little is known about the extent to which disability beneficiaries contribute to the economy through nonmarket work. This study uses data from the 2003-2012 American Time Use Survey, matched to the Current Population Survey, to provide the first nationally representative analysis of nonmarket time use among SSDI beneficiaries. A replacement wage approach is then used to assign monetary value to beneficiaries' nonmarket time and to evaluate the relative contribution of that monetary value to gross domestic product (GDP) and average aggregate SSDI payments. Results indicate that beneficiaries, on average, report nearly 4.5 hr per day of nonmarket production. These inputs would comprise between .69% and .98% of total GDP if they were compensated in the market, depending on methodology and year of observation. Furthermore, the value of beneficiaries' inputs exceeds the cost of average aggregate payments to beneficiaries across all years. Thus, SSDI beneficiaries report substantial production, albeit not in the market.