The Economics of Inclusion
Fiscal analysis, policy research, and expert perspectives on the economic case for work inclusion.
Fiscal Case
Business Case
Social Return on Investment
Labour Market
Policy & Incentives
Cost of Exclusion
Fiscal Case
All pieces (1) →Business Case
All pieces (6) →Care to Compete: Corporate Policies and Practices on Care and Support for Employees with Disabilities and Employees with Dependants with Disabilities
ILO Global Business and Disability Network report (October 2025) on how multinational companies support employees with disabilities and employees caring for dependants with disabilities. It links disability-inclusive care and support policies to job satisfaction, retention and productivity, but finds low employee awareness of these policies and uneven application across regions.
Working from Home Boosted Growth by Expanding Disability Employment
CEPR VoxEU column by Nicholas Bloom, Gordon Dahl and Dan-Olof Rooth (May 2025): working from home has already increased full-time disability employment in the US by over a quarter of a million people. Wages of employees with a disability fell, suggesting labour supply is the dominant driving force, and hybrid and fully remote working could increase labour supply in North America by perhaps a million or more, with similar gains possible in Europe.
Global Economics of Disability Report: 2024
Market-sizing report by consultancy The Return on Disability Group (September 2024). It applies age- and gender-specific disability rates from Statistics Canada's 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability to population data and estimates that disabled people aged 25–64 in Canada, the EU, UK and US have over $2.6 trillion in disposable income, $1.3 trillion of it in the US. These are modelled estimates, not measured spending.
Labour Market
All pieces (4) →Work from Home and Disability Employment
A 1 percentage point increase in work from home increases full-time employment by 1.0% for individuals with a physical disability. The post-pandemic increase in working from home explains 68%-85% of the rise in full-time employment among people with a physical disability. (Bloom, Dahl & Rooth, NBER)
Disability-Based Labour Market Inequalities
ETUI working paper (Pettinicchio & Maroto, 2024) reviewing the earnings and employment disparities faced by people with disabilities across countries. People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by economic downturns and the Covid-19 pandemic, which in the United Kingdom reversed a narrowing employment gap. In the United States, unions contributed to an earnings boost of 30% for workers with disabilities, and the authors argue unions must work proactively for disadvantaged groups.
A Study on the Employment and Wage Outcomes of People with Disabilities
Across 30 countries with wage data, employees with disabilities earn 12 per cent less per hour than those without; three quarters of this gap is not explained by education, age or occupation. In low- and lower-middle-income countries the gap reaches 26 per cent.
Policy & Incentives
All pieces (3) →Divergent Paths: Differential Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases on Individuals with Disabilities
Using American Community Survey data and state-level minimum wage variation during the 2010s, the authors find that large minimum wage increases significantly reduce employment and labor force participation for individuals with severe disabilities, alongside an increase in public assistance receipt. They raise concerns about labor market policies' unintended consequences for populations on the margins of the labor force. (Clemens, Gentry & Meer, NBER)
Revisiting the Employment Effects of the Americans with Disabilities Act
Lise, Pastorino and Pistaferri revisit Acemoglu and Angrist using Survey of Income and Program Participation data, which separate work limitations from other functional limitations. Over a longer sample period, they find the ADA reduced the employment and wages of people with work limitations. It had a substantial and significant positive effect on the employment of people whose physical or mental limitations are not work-impacting. (Working paper, November 2023)
Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act
In this 2001 study using Current Population Survey data, Acemoglu and Angrist find the ADA had a negative effect on the employment of disabled men of all working ages and disabled women under age 40. The ADA reduced hiring of disabled people but did not affect separations, and the effects were larger in medium-size firms and in states with more ADA-related discrimination charges. (Journal of Political Economy, 2001)
Cost of Exclusion
All pieces (4) →Global Disability Inclusion Report: Accelerating Disability Inclusion in a Changing and Diverse World
Multi-stakeholder report led by UNICEF with ILO, WHO, LSHTM, IDA and others for the Global Disability Summit 2025. It finds that underemployment of persons with disabilities costs up to 7% of GDP in low- and middle-income countries, and that higher-income countries spend on average at least 1.5% of GDP supporting persons with disabilities while most low- and middle-income countries remain below 0.5%.
From Unpaid Care to Shared Prosperity: Investing in Disability Inclusion to Unlock Growth
A World Bank feature story citing International Labour Organization estimates that unpaid care work, much of it for people with disabilities and older persons, would equate to 9 percent of global GDP, or $11 trillion, if compensated. It argues that when governments invest in care systems, they unlock new sources of employment and productivity.
From Recession to Pandemic: Displacement Among Workers with Disabilities from 2007 through 2021
Using six waves of the CPS Displaced Worker Supplement (N = 344,729), Maroto and Pettinicchio find people with disabilities were approximately twice as likely as those without disabilities to experience job displacement. The gap peaked at 6.5 percentage points during the Great Recession, and the pandemic increased it to 5.8 percentage points.