Eligibility Recertification and Dynamic Opt-In Incentives in Income-Tested Social Programs: Evidence from Medicaid/CHIP

Zhuan Pei

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2017, vol. 9, issue 1, 241-76

Abstract: Conventional labor supply studies assume constant eligibility monitoring of income-tested program participants, but the time between two consecutive eligibility certifications (the "recertification period") can be as long as a year for Medicaid/CHIP recipients. In this paper, I study the optimal recertification period for this population. A long recertification period, while reducing monitoring costs, is predicted to induce program participation via temporary income adjustments. However, I find no support for this prediction using the 2001 and 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Given this, I propose a simple framework to compute the optimal recertification period and find 12 months to be its lower bound.

JEL-codes: H75 I18 I38 J13 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20130271
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Eligibility Recertification and Dynamic Opt-in Incentives in Income-tested Social Programs: Evidence from Medicaid/CHIP (2015)
Working Paper: Eligibility Recertification and Dynamic Opt-in Incentives in Income-tested Social Programs: Evidence from Medicaid/CHIP (2013)
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