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The Affordable Care Act and the labor market: a first look

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Abstract

I consider changes in labor markets across U.S. states and counties around the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and its implementation in 2014. I find that counties with large fractions of uninsured (and therefore a large exposure to the ACA) before the enactment or the implementation of the ACA experienced more rapid employment and salary growth than did counties with smaller fractions of people uninsured, both after the implementation of the ACA and after its enactment. I also find that the growth of the fraction of employees in states with larger uninsurance rates was not substantially higher than it was in states with smaller uninsurance rates. These findings are not accounted for by differential rates of recovery from the Great Recession in high- and low-uninsurance areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Maxim L. Pinkovskiy, 2015. "The Affordable Care Act and the labor market: a first look," Staff Reports 746, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:746
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nathaniel Hendren, 2013. "Private Information and Insurance Rejections," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(5), pages 1713-1762, September.
    2. Craig Garthwaite & Tal Gross & Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2014. "Public Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Employment Lock," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 653-696.
    3. Marcus Hagedorn & Fatih Karahan & Iourii Manovskii & Kurt Mitman, 2013. "Unemployment Benefits and Unemployment in the Great Recession: The Role of Equilibrium Effects," Staff Reports 646, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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    5. Kurt Mitman & Iourii Manovskii & Fatih Karahan & Marcus Hagedorn, 2013. "Unemployment Benefits and Unemployment in the Great Recession: The Role of Macro Effects," 2013 Meeting Papers 1260, Society for Economic Dynamics.
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew A. Samwick, 2018. "Means Testing Federal Health Entitlement Benefits," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(1), pages 173-210.
    2. Rajashri Chakrabarti & Maxim L. Pinkovskiy, 2018. "The Affordable Care Act and the market for higher education," Staff Reports 873, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    3. Marcus Dillender & Carolyn J. Heinrich & Susan Houseman, 2022. "Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Part-Time Employment: Early Evidence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(4), pages 1394-1423.
    4. Rajashri Chakrabarti & Maxim Pinkovskiy, 2019. "The Affordable Care Act and the Market for Higher Education," CESifo Working Paper Series 7869, CESifo.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • 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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