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Average Marginal Labor Income Tax Rates under the Affordable Care Act

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  • Casey B. Mulligan

Abstract

The Affordable Care Act includes four significant, permanent, implicit unemployment assistance programs, plus various implicit subsidies for underemployment, and expanded Medicaid eligibility for adults. Every sector of the economy, and about half of nonelderly adults, is directly affected by at least one of those provisions. This paper calculates the ACA's impact on the average reward to working among nonelderly household heads and spouses. The law increases marginal tax rates by an average of five percentage points (of employee compensation), on top of the marginal tax rates that were already present before it went into effect. The ACA's addition to labor tax wedges is roughly equivalent to doubling both employer and employee payroll tax rates for half of the population.

Suggested Citation

  • Casey B. Mulligan, 2013. "Average Marginal Labor Income Tax Rates under the Affordable Care Act," NBER Working Papers 19365, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19365
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Katherine Baicker & Amitabh Chandra, 2006. "The Labor Market Effects of Rising Health Insurance Premiums," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 609-634, July.
    2. Casey B. Mulligan, 2013. "Is the Affordable Care Act Different from Romneycare? A Labor Economics Perspective," NBER Working Papers 19366, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Barro, Robert J & Sahasakul, Chaipat, 1983. "Measuring the Average Marginal Tax Rate from the Individual Income Tax," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 419-452, October.
    4. Barro, Robert J. & Sahasakul, Chaipat, 1983. "Measuring the Average Marginal Tax Rates from Social Security and the Individual Income Tax," Working Papers 29, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    5. Jonathan T. Kolstad & Amanda E. Kowalski, 2012. "Mandate-Based Health Reform and the Labor Market:� Evidence from the Massachusetts Reform," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1855, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    6. Kolstad, Jonathan T. & Kowalski, Amanda E., 2016. "Mandate-based health reform and the labor market: Evidence from the Massachusetts reform," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 81-106.
    7. Summers, Lawrence H, 1989. "Some Simple Economics of Mandated Benefits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 177-183, May.
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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. Eric French & Hans-Martin von Gaudecker & John Bailey Jones, 2016. "The Effect of the Affordable Care Act on the Labor Supply, Savings, and Social Security of Older Americans," Working Papers wp354, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Casey B. Mulligan, 2012. "The ARRA: Some Unpleasant Welfare Arithmetic," NBER Working Papers 18591, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2017. "Health, Health Insurance, and Retirement: A Survey," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 383-409, September.
    7. Bradley Heim & Ithai Lurie & Kosali Simon, 2015. "The Impact of the Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Tax Data," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 133-157.
    8. Casey B. Mulligan, 2013. "Is the Affordable Care Act Different from Romneycare? A Labor Economics Perspective," NBER Working Papers 19366, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jonathan Gruber & Benjamin D. Sommers, 2019. "The Affordable Care Act’s Effects on Patients, Providers and the Economy: What We’ve Learned So Far," NBER Working Papers 25932, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. 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.
    11. John Gibson, 2015. "Expanded Social Protection May Do More Harm Than Good: A Pessimistic Review," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(3), pages 652-659, September.
    12. Hansen, G.D. & Ohanian, L.E., 2016. "Neoclassical Models in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 2043-2130, Elsevier.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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