Health Insurance and the Labor Supply Decisions of Older Workers: Evidence from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

This paper exploits a major mid-1990s expansion in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care system to provide evidence on the labor market effects of expanding health insurance availability. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we compare the labor market behavior of older veterans and non-veterans before and after the VA health benefits expansion to test the impact of public health insurance on labor supply. We find that older workers are significantly more likely to decrease work both on the extensive and intensive margins after receiving access to non-employer based insurance. Older workers are also more likely to leave self-employment, a result inconsistent with "job-lock" effects of employer-based insurance, but consistent with a positive income effect from new access to public insurance. Some relatively disadvantaged subpopulations, however, may increase their labor supply after gaining greater access to public insurance, consistent with complementary positive health effects of health care access for these groups. We conclude that this reform has affected employment and retirement decisions, and suggest that future moves toward universal coverage or expansions of Medicare are likely to have significant labor market effects. To illustrate, we calculate that as much as 10% of the difference in retirement rates in the US and Canada may be due to Canada's provision of universal health care.labor supply, job-lock, retirement, older workers, health insurance, VA, Medicare, veteran

Age, Women, and Hiring: An Experimental Study

As the baby boom cohort reaches retirement age, demographic pressures on public programs such as social security may cause policy makers to cut benefits and encourage employment at later ages. This paper reports on a labor market experiment to determine the hiring conditions for older women in entry-level jobs in Boston, MA and St. Petersburg, FL. Differential interviewing by age is found for these jobs. A younger worker is more than 40% more likely to be offered an interview than an older worker. No evidence is found to support taste-based discrimination as a reason for this differential and some suggestive evidence is found to support statistical discrimination.

The Efficiency of a Group-Specific Mandated Benefit Revisited: The Effect of Infertility Mandates

This paper examines the labor market effects of state health insurance mandates that increase the cost of employing a demographically identifiable group. State mandates requiring that health insurance plans cover infertility treatment raise the relative cost of insuring older women of child-bearing age. Empirically, wages in this group are unaffected, but their total labor input decreases. Workers do not value infertility mandates at cost, and so will not take wage cuts in exchange, leading employers to decrease their demand for this affected and identifiable group. Differences in the empirical effects of mandates found in the literature are explained by a model including variations in the elasticity of demand, moral hazard, ability to identify a group, and adverse selection

Aging and the Labor Market: Dissertation Summary

This dissertation explores important employment issues facing older job applicants. First, it clearly demonstrates the existence of age discrimination and explores some of the possible reasons for this differential treatment. Second, it finds that age discrimination laws hurt the labor market opportunities for white older men. Finally, it shows that expanding public health care programs for older workers would increase retirement and part-time work for older workers, and would increase job mobility and self-employment for prime-aged workers as well

Spousal Labor Market Effects from Government Health Insurance: Evidence from a Veterans Affairs Expansion

Although government expansion of health insurance to older workers leads to labor supply reductions for recipients, there may be spillover effects on the labor supply of affected spouses who are not covered by the programs. In the simplest model, health insurance on the job is paid for in terms of lower compensation on the job. Receiving health insurance exogenous to employment is akin to a positive income shock for the household, causing total household labor supply to drop. However, it is not clear within the household whether this decrease in labor supply will be borne by both spouses or by a specific spouse. We use a mid-1990s expansion of health insurance for U.S. veterans to provide evidence on the effects of expanding health insurance availability on the labor supply of spouses. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we employ a difference-in-differences strategy to compare the labor market behavior of the wives of older male veterans and non-veterans before and after the VA health benefits expansion to test the impact of public health insurance on these spouses. Our findings suggest that although household labor supply may decrease because of the income effect, the more flexible labor supply of wives allows the wife’s labor supply to increase, particularly for those with lower education levels.Health Economics, Labor force participation

The Efficiency of a Group-Specific Mandated Benefit Revisited: The Effect of Infertility Mandates

This paper examines the labor market effects of state health insurance mandates that increase the cost of employing a demographically identifiable group. State mandates requiring that health insurance plans cover infertility treatment raise the relative cost of insuring older women of child-bearing age. Empirically, wages in this group are unaffected, but their total labor input decreases. Workers do not value infertility mandates at cost, and so will not take wage cuts in exchange, leading employers to decrease their demand for this affected and identifiable group. Differences in the empirical effects of mandates found in the literature are explained by a model including variations in the elasticity of demand, moral hazard, ability to identify a group, and adverse selection.labor supply, infertility, health insurance, health insurance mandates

Health Insurance and the Labor Supply Decisions of Older Workers: Evidence from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

This paper exploits a major mid-1990s expansion in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care system to provide evidence on the labor market effects of expanding health insurance availability. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we compare the labor market behavior of older veterans and non-veterans before and after the VA health benefits expansion to test the impact of public health insurance on labor supply. We find that older workers are significantly more likely to decrease work both on the extensive and intensive margins after receiving access to non-employer based insurance. Older workers are also more likely to leave self-employment, a result inconsistent with job-lock effects of employer-based insurance, but consistent with a positive income effect from new access to public insurance. Some relatively disadvantaged subpopulations, however, may increase their labor supply after gaining greater access to public insurance, consistent with complementary positive health effects of health care access for these groups. We conclude that this reform has affected employment and retirement decisions, and suggest that future moves toward universal coverage or expansions of Medicare are likely to have significant labor market effects. To illustrate, we calculate that as much as 10% of the difference in retirement rates in the US and Canada may be due to Canada\u27s provision of universal health care

Aging and the labor market

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2005."June 2005." Page 111 blank.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis is a collection of three essays analyzing the interplay between aging and the labor market. The first chapter demonstrates that differential treatment by age exists in labor markets and explores different possible explanations for this differential treatment. As the baby boom cohort reaches retirement age, demographic pressures on public programs such as social security may cause policy makers to cut benefits and encourage work at later ages. This chapter reports on a labor market experiment to determine the hiring conditions for older women in entry-level jobs in Boston, MA and St. Petersburg, FL. I find differential interviewing by age for these jobs. A younger worker is more than 40% more likely to be offered an interview than an older worker. I find no evidence to support taste-based discrimination as a reason for this differential and some evidence to support statistical discrimination. The second chapter examines more closely one of the possible reason for this differential treatment. Older workers may cost employers more in terms of potential age discrimination lawsuits. I study the effects of state and federal age discrimination laws between 1968 and 1991. Prior to the enforcement of the federal law, state laws had little effect on older workers, suggesting that firms either knew little about these laws or did not see them as a threat. After the enforcement of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) in 1979, white male workers over the age of 50 in states with age discrimination laws work fewer weeks per year and are less likely to be hired or separated from their jobs, but are more likely to be retired (perhaps involuntarily).(cont.) These findings suggest a story in which firms do not wish to hire older workers, are afraid to fire older workers, and remove older workers through strong incentives to retire in states where lawsuits are less of a hurdle for the worker. The third paper, co-authored with Melissa Boyle, explores the relationship between health insurance coverage and labor market efficiencies termed "job-lock." We exploit an insurance option which is bth truly exogenous to work decisions, and of lasting duration. A major expansion in both the services provided and the population covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system allows us to both cleanly estimate the extent of job-lock, and also to study the impact of publicly provided health care on labor supply. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we examine the impact of health care coverage on labor force participation and retirement by comparing veterans and non-veterans before and after the VA expansion. Results indicate that workers are significantly more likely to cease working as a result of becoming eligible for public insurance, and are also more likely to move to part-time work.by Joanna Nicole Lahey.Ph.D

Spousal Labor Market Effects from Government Health Insurance: Evidence from a Veterans Affairs Expansion

Although government expansion of health insurance to older workers leads to labor supply reductions for recipients, there may be spillover effects on the labor supply of affected spouses who are not covered by the programs. In the simplest model, health insurance on the job is paid for in terms of lower compensation on the job. Receiving health insurance exogenous to employment is akin to a positive income shock for the household, causing total household labor supply to drop. However, it is not clear within the household whether this decrease in labor supply will be borne by both spouses or by a specific spouse. We use a mid-1990s expansion of health insurance for U.S. veterans to provide evidence on the effects of expanding health insurance availability on the labor supply of spouses. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we employ a difference-in-differences strategy to compare the labor market behavior of the wives of older male veterans and non-veterans before and after the VA health benefits expansion to test the impact of public health insurance on these spouses. Our findings suggest that although household labor supply may decrease because of the income effect, the more flexible labor supply of wives allows the wife’s labor supply to increase, particularly for those with lower education levels