An Endogenously-Switching Ordered-Response Model of Information, Eligiblity and Participation in SSI

Abstract

A model incorporating SSI participation, information and perceptions of program eligibility is developed and estimated using data from the 1980 PSID. The model assumes the participation decision process begins in an uninformed regime and switches to an informed regime if the perceived benefits are sufficiently high. In this informed regime individuals participate if perceived benefits exceed perceived costs. We find that the acquisition of information is responsive to actual program generosity just as is participation itself. Faulty information, which may be the proximate cause of low participation rates, is apparently, in part, a consequence of low perceived net benefits. Copyright 1990 by MIT Press.