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Does health reform affect self-employment? Evidence from Massachusetts

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  • Bradley Heim
  • Ithai Lurie

Abstract

This paper evaluates whether the implementation of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law affected the decision of taxpayers to be self-employed, using both difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods on a panel of tax returns that spans 1999–2010. Though tenuous, our results suggest that the reform led to a decline in the rate of taxpayers earning a majority of income from self-employment. In addition, it appears to have had a positive impact on earning some self-employment income among joint filers and earning the majority of income from self-employment among older taxpayers, but these were offset by negative impacts on single filers and taxpayers age 35–49. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York (outside the USA) 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Bradley Heim & Ithai Lurie, 2014. "Does health reform affect self-employment? Evidence from Massachusetts," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 917-930, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:43:y:2014:i:4:p:917-930
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-014-9572-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Casey B. Mulligan, 2014. "The Economics of Work Schedules under the New Hours and Employment Taxes," NBER Working Papers 19936, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Bradley T. Heim & Ithai Z. Lurie, 2015. "The Impact of Health Reform on Job Mobility: Evidence from Massachusetts," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 1(3), pages 374-398, Summer.
    3. Ammar Farooq & Adriana Kugler, 2016. "Beyond Job Lock: Impacts of Public Health Insurance on Occupational and Industrial Mobility," NBER Working Papers 22118, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. James Bailey, 2017. "Health insurance and the supply of entrepreneurs: new evidence from the affordable care act," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 627-646, October.
    5. Ayala, Luis & Martín-Román, Javier & Navarro, Carolina, 2023. "Unemployment shocks and material deprivation in the European Union: A synthetic control approach," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(1).
    6. Jacqueline Chattopadhyay, 2018. "State Health Insurance Regulation and Self-Employment Rates After the Great Recession: The Role of Guaranteed Issue Mandates," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 32(1), pages 78-92, February.
    7. Casey B. Mulligan, 2015. "The New Full-Time Employment Taxes," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 89-132.
    8. Katarzyna Metelska-Szaniawska, 2016. "Reassessing the Economic Effects of Post-Socialist Constitutions Using the Synthetic Control Method," Working Papers 2016-18, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    9. Jun Yeong Lee & John V. Winters, 2022. "State Medicaid Expansion and the Self-Employed," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 925-954, October.
    10. Fossen, Frank M. & Hossain, Mobarak & Mukhopadhyay, Sankar & Toth, Peter, 2021. "The Cost of Health Insurance and Entry into Entrepreneurship," IZA Discussion Papers 14891, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Debdeep Chattopadhyay, 2023. "Did the Massachusetts Health Reform Program increase self-employment?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 1309-1344, September.
    12. Pauline Leung & Alexandre Mas, 2016. "Employment Effects of the ACA Medicaid Expansions," NBER Working Papers 22540, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Hossain, Md. Mobarak, 2021. "Relationship Between Health Insurance and Self-employment: A Systematic Review," MPRA Paper 105634, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Bradley Heim, 2015. "Understanding the decline in self-employment among individuals nearing retirement," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 561-580, October.
    15. James Bailey & Dhaval Dave, 2019. "The Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Entrepreneurship among Older Adults," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 141-159, January.
    16. Joanna Woronkowicz & Aparna Soni & Seth Freedman & Kosali Simon, 2020. "How have recent health insurance expansions affected coverage among artist occupations in the USA?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 44(1), pages 117-154, March.
    17. Frank M. Fossen & Johannes König, 2017. "Public health insurance, individual health, and entry into self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 647-669, October.
    18. Erin O Sills & Diego Herrera & A Justin Kirkpatrick & Amintas Brandão Jr. & Rebecca Dickson & Simon Hall & Subhrendu Pattanayak & David Shoch & Mariana Vedoveto & Luisa Young & Alexander Pfaff, 2015. "Estimating the Impacts of Local Policy Innovation: The Synthetic Control Method Applied to Tropical Deforestation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Self-employment; Health reform; Health insurance; L26; I18; I13;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private

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