A behavioral economics assessment of social security disability insurance earnings reporting documents.

Background: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries who work are often overpaid, with a median overpayment amount of over $9000. These overpayments occur when the Social Security Administration (SSA) pays benefits to beneficiaries not entitled to them because of work; beneficiaries are required to repay the debt to SSA. Work-related overpayments most often occur because beneficiaries work but do not follow SSDI program rules to report earnings and evidence suggests that SSDI beneficiaries are often unaware of reporting requirements.

Two-step estimation in ratio-of-mediator-probability weighted causal mediation analysis.

This study investigates appropriate estimation of estimator variability in the context of causal mediation analysis that employs propensity score-based weighting. Such an analysis decomposes the total effect of a treatment on the outcome into an indirect effect transmitted through a focal mediator and a direct effect bypassing the mediator. Ratio-of-mediator-probability weighting estimates these causal effects by adjusting for the confounding impact of a large number of pretreatment covariates through propensity score-based weighting.