The fraction of prime-age men receiving disability insurance benefits has increased from 1 percent in the late 1970s to 3 percent more recently. 26 Recent research also finds that among all prime-age men who are not in the labor force, about one-third reported having at least one disability, and nearly one-half reported taking pain medications daily.
27 These supply-side explanations may be related to the drop in labor demand: the despair related to diminished prospects of a stable and quality job may lead to substance abuse and related health or mortality concerns. 28  For national-level estimates of the labor market effects from cheaper Chinese imports, see Pierce and Schott (2016a) and Acemoglu and others (2016).