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Tax-Based Marriage Incentives in the Affordable Care Act

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  • Elliott Isaac
  • Haibin Jiang

Abstract

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced a premium tax credit to help low-income families purchase insurance and an individual mandate penalty to encourage purchasing insurance, but a couple’s total tax credit and mandate penalty may differ depending on whether they are married. We use an instrumental variables approach to estimate couples’ marriage responses to the ACA by leveraging variation created by the premium tax credit, individual mandate, Medicaid expansion, and the “family glitch.” We estimate a significant though small positive marriage response to the marriage subsidy and a larger negative response to the family glitch.

Suggested Citation

  • Elliott Isaac & Haibin Jiang, 2025. "Tax-Based Marriage Incentives in the Affordable Care Act," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 369-413.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:nattax:doi:10.1086/734569
    DOI: 10.1086/734569
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

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