IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mos/moswps/2013-19.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Work Decisions among Young Adults Respond to Extended Dependent Coverage?

Author

Listed:
  • Youjin Hahn
  • Hee-Seung Yang

Abstract

Young adults aged 19-24 are significantly less likely to have health insurance since most family insurance policies cut off dependents when they turn 19 or finish college. In recent years, several states in the United States have expanded eligibility to allow young adults to remain covered under their parents' employer-provided health insurance. For those who qualify for these benefits, the expansion of parental dependent coverage partially reduces the value of being employed by a firm that provides health insurance or of working full-time, as adult children can now obtain health insurance through another channel. In this study, we employ quasi-experimental variation in the timing and generosity of states' eligibility rules to identify the effect of the policy change on young adults' labor market choices. Our results suggest that the expansion of dependent coverage increases the group dependent coverage rate and reduces labor supply among young adults, particularly in full-time employment. The results are robust to a variety of empirical specifications and sample selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Youjin Hahn & Hee-Seung Yang, 2013. "Do Work Decisions among Young Adults Respond to Extended Dependent Coverage?," Monash Economics Working Papers 19-13, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2013-19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/eco/research/papers/2013/1913workdecisionshahnyang.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bradley Heim & Ithai Lurie & Kosali Simon, 2018. "Did the Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision Affect Labor Market Outcomes? Analysis Using Tax Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(5), pages 1154-1178, October.
    2. Fone, Zachary S. & Friedson, Andrew I. & Lipton, Brandy & Sabia, Joseph J., 2020. "The Dependent Coverage Mandate Took a Bite Out of Crime," IZA Discussion Papers 12968, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Scott Barkowski & Joanne Song McLaughlin, 2022. "In Sickness and in Health: Interaction Effects of State and Federal Health Insurance Coverage Mandates on Marriage of Young Adults," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(2), pages 637-688.
    4. Li, Yajuan & Palma, Marco A. & Towne, Samuel, 2017. "Does Health Insurance Provision Improve Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship? Evidence from State Insurance Mandates," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258399, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Laura J. Owen, 2017. "Part-time Employment and Health Insurance Reform: What Can Massachusetts Tell Us about the Affordable Care Act?," Review of Social Sciences, LAR Center Press, vol. 2(3), pages 1-8, March.
    6. Joelle Abramowitz, 2018. "Planning parenthood: the Affordable Care Act young adult provision and pathways to fertility," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 1097-1123, October.
    7. Scott Barkowski & Joanne Song McLaughlin & Alex Ray, 2020. "A Reevaluation of the Effects of State and ACA Dependent Coverage Mandates on Health Insurance Coverage," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 629-663, June.
    8. Conor Lennon, 2019. "Employer‐Sponsored Health Insurance and the Gender Wage Gap: Evidence from the Employer Mandate," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(3), pages 742-765, January.
    9. Nga Le Thi Quynh & Groot, Wim & Tomini, Sonila M. & Tomini, Florian, 2017. "Effects of health insurance on labour supply: A systematic review," MERIT Working Papers 2017-017, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    10. Joelle Abramowitz, 2017. "Planning Parenthood: The Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision and Pathways to Fertility," Working Papers 17-65, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Margaret Katherine McKeehan, 2018. "The EITC and the labor supply of adult dependents: direct effects and family income effects," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 791-807, September.
    12. Andrés Hincapié, 2020. "Entrepreneurship Over The Life Cycle: Where Are The Young Entrepreneurs?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 61(2), pages 617-681, May.
    13. Serakos Maria & Wolfe Barbara, 2016. "The ACA: Impacts on Health, Access, and Employment," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 201-259, December.
    14. Michael R. Richards & Sebastian Tello‐Trillo, 2021. "Private coverage mandates, business cycles, and provider treatment intensity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1200-1221, May.
    15. Gamino Aaron M., 2021. "The Effect of Health Insurance on Young Adult HIV Testing: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act Dependent Coverage Mandate," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 147-174, January.
    16. Zhao, Weimin, 2019. "Does health insurance promote people's consumption? New evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 65-86.
    17. Otto Lenhart & Vinish Shrestha, 2016. "The Effect of the Health Insurance Mandate on Labor Market Activity and Time Allocation: Evidence from the Federal Dependent Coverage Provision," Working Papers 2016-10, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2016.
    18. Margaret E. Blume-Kohout, 2024. "Entrepreneurship Lock and the Demand for Health Insurance: Evidence from the US Affordable Care Act," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 77(2), pages 199-226, March.
    19. Lennon, Conor, 2021. "Are the costs of employer-sponsored health insurance passed on to workers at the individual level?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Young adults; Health insurance; Group dependent coverage; Labor force participation; Full- time employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2013-19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Simon Angus (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dxmonau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.