I consider the health, family structure, and labor supply inter-relationships at both a theoretical and empirical level. The paper is organized in the following way. SectionI introduces the material. In Section II, a theoretical model of family time allocation among market, home, and health activities is developed. The concept of a family health maintenance function is formalized to generate qualitative predictions of the effect of wages, health status, health care efficiency, and property income on the labor supply of husband and wife. In Section III, data from the older male portion of the National Longitudinal Surveys are used to estimate labor supply functions for married and single men with special attention to differences in poor health responses. A simultaneous model of male labor supply and other family income (chiefly transfer income and the earnings of the wife) is then estimated to determine whether variations in the work hours of males, largely due to health differences, induce any substantial changes in income producing activities by other family members. Finally, in Section IV the detailed time budget data on both males and females from the Productive Americans Survey are used to estimate more precisely the effect of health on total family time allocations. These data provide estimates of the impact of poor health on home production time as well as market time for both husband and wife.

The self-screening properties of initial eligibility determination, a mechanism often under the control of the administrators of targeted transfer programs, are derived and the use of this mechanism in the social security disability insurance system is explored empirically. An increase in the rigor of initial eligibility screening may discourage potential applicants because they are unaware of appeal prospects and because the eligibility decision delay is lengthened, as denied applicants are forced to appeal their claims. In the disability program, a 10 percent increase in the initial denial rate induces a 4 percent decrease in applications. Self-selection is nonperverse.

The self-screening properties of initial eligibility determination, a mechanism often under the control of the administrators of targeted transfer programs, are derived and the use of this mechanism in the social security disability insurance system is explored empirically. An increase in the rigor of initial eligibility screening may discourage potential applicants because they are unaware of appeal prospects and because the eligibility decision delay is lengthened, as denied applicants are forced to appeal their claims. In the disability program, a 10 percent increase in the initial denial rate induces a 4 percent decrease in applications. Self-selection is nonperverse.

[The rate of nonparticipation in market work among prime-aged males in the United States has risen persistently during the postwar period. The rate among males aged 45-54, for example, has risen from 4.2 percent to 8.4 percent from 1948 to 1976, with similar trends among other age groups. The principal hypothesis explored is that labor force withdrawal has been induced by the rapid expansion of welfare alternatives to work, principally the Social Security disability program. Cross-sectional evidence strongly confirms this hypothesis. Time-series projections of the cross-sectional model, moreover, track actual postwar trends in male labor force participation reasonably well.]

The rate of nonparticipation in market work among prime-aged males in the United States has risen persistently during the postwar period. The rate among males aged 45-54, for example, has risen from 4.2 percent to 8.4 percent from 1948 to 1976, with similar trends among other age groups. The principal hypothesis explored is that labor force withdrawal has been induced by the rapid expansion of welfare alternatives to work, principally the Social Security disability program. Cross-sectional evidence strongly confirms this hypothesis. Time-series projections of the cross-sectional model, moreover, track actual postwar trends in male labor force participation reasonably well.