Kara Contreary

Overview

Kara Contreary is a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. Her work focuses on labor market attachment patterns of Social Security disability insurance applicants and on the design and evaluation of programs to divert workers away from disability benefit dependency.

Key Contributions / Features

• Contreary, Honeycutt, Stegman Bailey, and Mastrianni (2017) — Using SIPP-SSA linked data for DI applicants ages 25–55, introduced the Type 1/Type 2 applicant taxonomy based on pre-application employment. Type 1 (53%): consistently employed or ceased employment shortly before application; Type 2 (47%): intermittent or no prior employment. Type 2 applicants have allowance rates 10–15 pp lower than Type 1 and are outside the reach of employer-focused early-intervention proposals. The paper shows that roughly half the DI applicant pool is reachable only through public programs (Medicaid, SNAP) rather than through the workforce.

Related

• Todd Honeycutt
• Michelle Stegman Bailey
• Conditional DI Applicants
• DI Application Costs and Take-Up
• SSA Sequential Determination Process
• Social Security Administration

Sources

• Contreary et al 2017 — Employment Patterns Before Applying for Disability Insurance