The Health and Welfare Effects of Increases in Workers’ Compensation Benefits

Lu Jinks

Journal of Labor Economics, 2023, vol. 41, issue 3, 615 - 642

Abstract: This paper estimates the causal impacts of workers’ compensation income benefits on workers’ health and welfare outcomes. Using claims data from 2004 to 2016, I explore the variation in benefits due to a reform of New York workers’ compensation that increased the maximum weekly benefits. I find that a $77 increase in the weekly benefits led to an additional 3.4 days off work. Medical utilization did not increase. Each extra day off work decreased the reinjury likelihood by 2.9%. The current benefit level in New York is close to optimal in balancing payer cost and worker health outcomes.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/720456 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/720456 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/720456

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Labor Economics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().