Does Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Make It Harder to Get Hired?

We study the effects of disability discrimination laws on hiring of older workers. These laws do not specifically define older disabled workers as a protected class. But the incidence of disabilities rises steeply with age, so older workers may be disproportionately affected by disability discrimination laws. Moreover, the perception that a worker is likely to have a disability in the near future should also rise steeply with age, and that perception may affect older workers adversely. We estimate the effects of disability discrimination laws on hiring of disabled workers, focusing some attention on hiring of nondisabled older workers. We use state variation in disability discrimination protections, which can strengthen the coverage of these laws by using a broader definition of disability than the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or applying to smaller firms, or can entail higher costs via larger damages