The Labor Market Effects of National Health Insurance: Evidence From Taiwan

Kamhon Kan () and Yen-Ling Lin
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Yen-Ling Lin: Department of Economics National Cheng-Chi University Taipei, Taiwan

No 07-A001, IEAS Working Paper : academic research from Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract: This paper investigates the impacts of national health insurance on the labor market, by considering the case of Taiwan, which implemented national health insurance in March 1995. Taiwan’s national health insurance is financed by premiums, which are proportional to an employee’s salary. These premiums may introduce distortions to the labor market. Based on repeated cross-sections of individual data we find that, on average, private sector employees’ work hours declined relative to their public sector counterparts, while their relative wage rates were almost unchanged with the introduction of national health insurance. The results suggest that neither private sector employers nor their employees were able to shift their premium burden to each other.

Keywords: National Health Insurance; Labor Supply; Wage Rate; Difference-in-Difference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 J22 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2007-01
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Related works:
Journal Article: The labor market effects of national health insurance: evidence from Taiwan (2009)
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