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Spatial Inequalities in Disabled Livelihoods: An Empirical Study of U.S. Counties

Garcia, Nicholas B
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1546570616166055

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Environment and Natural Resources.
I consider contributions and limitations of traditional approaches to disability and inequality, noting a lack of quantitative empirical studies to address persistent poverty and underemployment since passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). I find that the majority of literature is predicated upon assumptions of interpersonal discrimination and accessibility, without corresponding empirical study of how these factors influence the economic well-being of people with disabilities. Using newly-available county prevalence data from the American Community Survey (ACS), I present three studies to address areas of disability and inequality that have been neglected in sociological research. In the first, I address rising disability prevalence across U.S. counties and test prominent explanations involving health behaviors against place-based deprivation measures. Increasing disability prevalence is often attributed to rising obesity rates in the United States. Poverty and inequality, although commonly explored in studies of health disparities, have not been well-studied in their relationship to disability. I examine differences in disability prevalence across 2,964 U.S. counties to compare these competing explanations. I find that poverty is consistent in explaining the prevalence of overall disability and four subcategories of disability, while health behaviors are only significant when explaining some specific categories of disability. I further find that industrial composition of places plays an overlooked role in shaping disability prevalence, presumably from occupational hazards associated with extractive industrial activities across counties. In the second, I address the increasing gap in disabled employment that has persisted since the implementation of the ADA. The ADA offered protections against discriminatory hiring and workplace accessibility, but did not address other place-based and individual determinants of disability employment. I examine how the socioeconomic composition of places and county-level indicators of mobility shape employment of people with disabilities, while also considering how each type of disability may have different employment prospects. I find that the socioeconomic composition of places and the types of disability most common in a county are significant in explaining employment differences across U.S. counties. Finally, I address the support received by people with disabilities from the government. Conventional explanations of disability welfare from Supplementary Supportive Income (SSI) describe increasing enrollment in government programs as a product of insufficient work incentives and fraudulent claims of disability. I compare self-reported disability rates of each county to SSI enrollment and find that differences in SSI coverage are related to two competing explanations. The first involves sociopolitical interests that shape flows of federal welfare dollars to districts based on racial and economic makeup of counties. The second involves the capacity of medical institutions and government to administer and process disability claims. Although conventional accounts of disability welfare assume economic self-interests as the driver of SSI enrollment, I find that economic interests fail to be significant in explaining SSI coverage. Taken together, these findings describe an account of inequality and disability that is connected to the places in which people with disabilities live. I find that poverty and industrial activities that contribute to disabilities in a county also shape employment outcomes of people with disabilities. Places with high poverty have higher disability prevalence and worse employment outcomes for people with disabilities. Programs offering economic support are also limited in areas of economic hardship, as high income areas with substantial medical and governmental resources have the most responsive government programs. Within the sociology of disability, inequality and disability is often explained in terms of stigma, discrimination, and marginalized social status. In my three empirical studies, I find that social and economic characteristics of counties play an overlooked role in explaining differences in employment and governmental support among people with disabilities.
Linda Lobao, Professor (Advisor)
Jeff Sharp, Professor (Committee Member)
Cathy Rakowski, Professor (Committee Member)
173 p.
Demographics; Social Research; Sociology
disability; Americans with Disabilities Act; ADA; SSI; social security; sociology; rural sociology; poverty; counties; employment

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Garcia, N. B. (2019). Spatial Inequalities in Disabled Livelihoods: An Empirical Study of U.S. Counties [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1546570616166055

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Garcia, Nicholas. Spatial Inequalities in Disabled Livelihoods: An Empirical Study of U.S. Counties. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1546570616166055.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Garcia, Nicholas. "Spatial Inequalities in Disabled Livelihoods: An Empirical Study of U.S. Counties." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1546570616166055

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1546570616166055
368
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.