Did th Massachusetts Health Reform Program Increase Self-Employment?

Debdeep Chattopadhyay (debdeep.chattopadhyay@studenti.unipd.it)
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Debdeep Chattopadhyay: DSEA, University of Padova

No 244, "Marco Fanno" Working Papers from Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno"

Abstract: By providing affordable health insurance untied from employer provision, the Massachusetts Health Reform Program could increase self-employment. Previous studies have estimated both positive and negative effects of the reform on aggregate self-employment using difference-in-differences designs. In this study, I use the synthetic control methodology to confirm the absence of a statistically significant effect of the reform on aggregate self-employment. However, I do detect positive and significant short-run effects of the reform on the probability that individuals become incorporated self-employed. This effect is restricted to individuals 40 years old or younger. I also find that for employees in this age range the reform caused a significant wage reduction. This finding highlights that the higher reform-mandated health insurance coverage was at least in part financed by employees.

Keywords: Health Insurance; Self-Employment; Synthetic Control; Randomization Inference; Massachusetts Health Care Reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I13 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias and nep-lab
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pad:wpaper:0244

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