RIVISTA INTERNAZIONALE DI SCIENZE SOCIALI

In this paper, we investigate the impact of disability on job satisfaction and work-related stress using the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS, sixth wave). Employees with limitations in daily activities related to their long-term illness or health problems are found to experience lower job satisfaction and higher work-related stress. For these employees, a multivariate analysis shows that future adaption of the workplace or work activities can affect work-related stress and job satisfaction and that work-life balance has a higher impact than on the overall sample. These results confirm the need to adopt organisational changes and workplace adaptations to make the workplace more inclusive for people with disabilities. Perceived discrimination connected to one’s disability status is also found to increase work-related stress among employees, calling for specific actions to contrast and prevent stereotypes and direct discrimination in the workplace.

This article presents an updated review of the employment policy of sheltered employment for people with disabilities. We review the international literature, focusing on the European Union and especially on Spain, because of the great importance of sheltered employment centres in this country. Studies have increasingly questioned sheltered employment’s ability to promote labour market integration, mainly compared with supported employment. However, we lack clear causal evidence, as these arguments are largely based on descriptive evidence. In addition, sheltered employment centres have shifted to focus on people with physical disabilities rather than those with mental and cognitive disabilities, which was the predominant focus until the 2000s.

A person with severe health conditions faces capability deprivations that can affect both the well-being of the person him\herself and that of the household, in both material and non-material domains. From a capability-approach perspective, we analyse the material and non-material deprivation of households when one member is affected by a severe health condition with relevant disabling consequences. Furthermore, we investigate the main determinants of such deprivation, enabling the identification of tailored policies. The empirical analysis is conducted on a dataset of families with a member with acquired brain injury (ABI). ABIs may cause cognitive, physical and/or behavioural impairments. Our results show that the presence of a family member with an ABI is correlated with higher economic vulnerability and a lower quality of social relations within the family. From a policy perspective, our findings imply that economic support is not sufficient to foster the well-being of persons and families ABI members.

We provide an analysis of material deprivation in Italy using a dynamic correlated random effects probit model with endogenous initial conditions and highlighting the role of disability. We examine the two alternative indicators, one of material deprivation and on of material and social deprivation, and we offer a subgroup analysis. Our results indicate the presence of true state dependence for both types of deprivation. Nevertheless, the trapping effect associated with material deprivation increases faster when compared to that associated with material and social deprivation, possibly suggesting that the social dimension tends to mitigate the trap effect of material deprivation. Disability tends to worsen the living conditions of households already disadvantaged in Italian society, namely households with poorly educated, older and female heads, as well as singles and households with low work intensity. This is especially true in cases where an individual with severe disability lives in the household.

People with disabilities incur significant costs that can prevent them and their families from achieving a decent standard of living. These extra costs have recently attracted interest, and beyond the problems of defining and measuring them, they can first and foremost contribute to a better understanding of the world of disability and, in particular, the relationship between disability and poverty. The first part of this article is devoted to analysing this relationship. Extra costs can also help us design more effective and efficient disability policies. Using an approach based on capabilities and their relation to the standard of living, the second part of the article addresses this issue.

The purpose of this contribution is to summarise the main findings of a group of economists working on the economics of disability based on Australian and British datasets. It emphasises that for many individuals disability is a temporary phenomenon, with the implication that cross-section analysis is inadequate if one wishes to pick this up together with its effects. Experience of the incidence of disability also varies across countries, but whether disability is work-limiting or not is an important factor. A peculiarity of disability legislation is that unequal treatment in the form of favourable treatment compared to the able bodied is implied unlike other forms of discrimination legislation, which are based on equal treatment. The effects of disability are found to be substantial and long lasting for many.

The review of the book by Ellen Clifford The War on Disabled People (2020), focussing on the UK, prompts reflections on other recently published books on disability, i.e. Ryan’s Crippled (2019), again on the UK, Cullinan and others (2015) The Economics of Disability, on Ireland, and Agovino and others (2020) Aspetti Socioeconomici della disabilità: lavoro, reddito e politiche, about Italy. Despite the very different contexts and methodology of analysis, the findings of these books consistently show the inferior position of disabled people in western societies with respect to the labour market, income levels and risk of poverty. This situation has been exacerbated by the austerity imposed after the 2008 crisis, both financially and in terms of reduced services provided by local authorities. These results appear to confirm the view that the inferior situation of disabled people points to a systemic social problem, which only a deep transformative process can alter.