Public Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Employment Lock

Craig Garthwaite, Tal Gross and Matthew Notowidigdo

No 19220, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the effect of public health insurance eligibility on labor supply by exploiting the largest public health insurance disenrollment in the history of the United States. In 2005, approximately 170,000 Tennessee residents abruptly lost public health insurance coverage. Using both across- and within-state variation in exposure to the disenrollment, we estimate large increases in labor supply, primarily along the extensive margin. The increased employment is concentrated among individuals working at least 20 hours per week and receiving private, employer-provided health insurance. We explore the dynamic effects of the disenrollment and find an immediate increase in job search behavior and a steady rise in both employment and health insurance coverage following the disenrollment. Our results suggest a significant degree of "employment lock" - workers employed primarily in order to secure private health insurance coverage. The results also suggest that the Affordable Care Act - which similarly affects adults not traditionally eligible for public health insurance - may cause large reductions in the labor supply of low-income adults.

JEL-codes: I13 J20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ias, nep-lab and nep-lma
Note: EH LS PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Published as Craig Garthwaite & Tal Gross & Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2014. "Public Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Employment Lock," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 129(2), pages 653-696.

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