Kathleen Mullen

Overview

Kathleen J. Mullen is a health economist at RAND Corporation (Santa Monica). Her research focuses on disability insurance program design, labor market responses to disability benefit generosity, and the Great Recession's effects on DI claiming.

Key Contributions

• Causal effect of SSDI receipt (Maestas, Mullen, and Strand 2013, AER): examiner-assignment IV study; LATE = 28 pp employment loss for the 23% of applicants on the margin; OLS overstates to 35 pp due to severity selection; MTE varies from 0 to >50 pp across the marginal population; canonical identification strategy in the DI literature.
• DI and the Great Recession (Maestas, Mullen, and Strand 2015, AER P&P): Great Recession application surge; onset-to-filing gap evidence.
• Disability benefit generosity and labor force withdrawal (Mullen and Staubli 2016, Journal of Public Economics): cross-country analysis of how benefit levels affect labor force participation.
• Processing delay and labor force decay (Autor, Maestas, Mullen, and Strand 2015, NBER WP 20840): co-authored study using separate jackknife examiner IVs (EXTIME, EXALLOW) in the DIODS 2005 universe to identify a new channel — administrative processing time — through which SSDI reduces labor force participation. Each additional month of processing → employment −0.44–0.52 pp (year 3); corrected SSDI receipt effect −48 pp (vs. −27 pp MMS single-IV). See Causal Effects of DI Receipt.

Related

• Nicole Maestas
• Alexander Strand
• Conditional DI Applicants
• Disability Insurance Program

Sources

• Maestas Mullen and Strand 2013 — Does Disability Insurance Receipt Discourage Work
• Maestas Mullen and Strand 2015 — Disability Insurance and the Great Recession
• Autor Maestas Mullen and Strand 2015 — Does Delay Cause Decay The Effect of Administrative Decision Time on the Labor Force Participation and Earnings of Disability Applicants
• Carey Miller and Molitor 2025 — Why Does Disability Increase During Recessions Evidence from Medicare
• Deshpande and Lockwood 2022 — Beyond Health Nonhealth Risk and the Value of Disability Insurance
• French and Song 2014 — The Effect of Disability Insurance Receipt on Labor Supply
• Low and Pistaferri 2020 — Disability Insurance Theoretical Trade-Offs and Empirical Evidence
• Mueller Rothstein and von Wachter 2016 — Unemployment Insurance and Disability Insurance in the Great Recession
• Ruffing 2015 — Geographic Pattern of Disability Receipt Largely Reflects Economic and Demographic Factors
• Rutledge Zulkarnain and King 2019 — The Relationship Between Occupational Requirements and SSDI Activity
• Strand and Messel 2019 — The Ability of Older Workers with Impairments to Adapt to New Jobs