TY  - JOUR
AU  - Garthwaite, Craig
AU  - Gross, Tal
AU  - Notowidigdo, Matthew J
TI  - Public Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Employment Lock
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 19220
PY  - 2013
Y2  - July 2013
DO  - 10.3386/w19220
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w19220
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w19220.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Craig Garthwaite
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University
2211 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Tel: 847/491-2509
Fax: 847/467-1777
E-Mail: c-garthwaite@kellogg.northwestern.edu

Tal Gross
Questrom School of Business
595 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA  02215
E-Mail: talgross@bu.edu

Matthew J. Notowidigdo
University of Chicago
Booth School of Business
5807 S Woodlawn Ave
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773-834-6249
E-Mail: noto@chicagobooth.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2013-09-19
AB  - 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.
ER  -