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dc.contributor.advisorWebber, Douglas (Douglas A.)
dc.creatorBailey, James
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-03T15:34:12Z
dc.date.available2020-11-03T15:34:12Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.identifier.other890207754
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/2575
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation continues the tradition of identifying the unintended consequences of the US health insurance system. Its main contribution is to estimate the size of the distortions caused by the employer-based system and regulations intended to fix it, while using methods that are more novel and appropriate than those of previous work. Chapter 1 examines the effect of state-level health insurance mandates, which are regulations intended to expand access to health insurance. It finds that these regulations have the unintended consequence of increasing insurance premiums, and that these regulations have been responsible for 9-23% of premium increases since 1996. The main contribution of the chapter is that its results are more general than previous work, since it considers many more years of data, and it studies the employer-based plans that cover most Americans rather than the much less common individual plans. Whereas Chapter 1 estimates the effect of the average mandate on premiums, Chapter 2 focuses on a specific mandate, one that requires insurers to cover prostate cancer screenings. The focus on a single mandate allows a broader and more careful analysis that demonstrates how health policies spill over to affect the labor market. I find that the mandate has a significant negative effect on the labor market outcomes of the very group it was intended to help. The mandate expands the treatments health insurance covers for men over age 50, but by doing so it makes them more expensive to insure and employ. Employers respond to this added expense by lowering wages and hiring fewer men over age 50. According to the theoretical model put forward in the chapter, this suggests the mandate reduces total welfare. Chapter 3 shows that the employer-based health insurance system has deterred entrepreneurship. It takes advantage of the natural experiment provided by the Affordable Care Act's dependent coverage mandate, which de-linked insurance from employment for many 19-25 year olds. Difference-in-difference estimates show that the mandate increased self-employment among the treated group by 13-24%. Instrumental variables estimates show that those who actually received parental health insurance as a result of the mandate were drastically more likely to start their own business. This suggest that concerns over health insurance are a major barrier to entrepreneurship in the United States.
dc.format.extent84 pages
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherTemple University. Libraries
dc.relation.ispartofTheses and Dissertations
dc.rightsIN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
dc.subjectEconomics
dc.subjectEconomics, Labor
dc.subjectStatistics
dc.subjectAffordable Care Act
dc.subjectBenefit Mandates
dc.subjectDependent Coverage Mandate
dc.subjectDifference-in-difference
dc.subjectEntrepreneurship
dc.subjectHealth Insurance
dc.titleThree Essays on Health Insurance Regulation and the Labor Market
dc.typeText
dc.type.genreThesis/Dissertation
dc.contributor.committeememberLeeds, Michael (Michael A.)
dc.contributor.committeememberBlackstone, Erwin A., 1942-
dc.contributor.committeememberSfekas, Andrew
dc.description.departmentEconomics
dc.relation.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/2557
dc.ada.noteFor Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.edu
dc.description.degreePh.D.
refterms.dateFOA2020-11-03T15:34:12Z


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