How Does Disability Affect School-to-Work Transitions? Evidence From a French Labour Market Integration Survey

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the school-to-work transitions and early employment trajectories of young workers with disabilities. Using a survey following a cohort of French young workers exiting education in 2013 on their first 3 years on the labour market, I estimate the effect of disability on the probability of finding a (stable) job using duration models. I use several disability indicators to explore how the different definitions affect the results. Overall, I find that disability increases the duration of the transition to (stable) employment at the beginning of the career. This effect is higher when the disability is administratively recognised than when self-reported. I also show that the gap between disabled and nondisabled workers is somewhat lower among the most educated, while I evidence no significant difference between women and men. Besides, mental disabilities appear to be more detrimental on the school-to-work transitions than other types of disabilities, and having multiple disabilities increases the difficulties in the access to employment.