IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/4476.html

Employment-Based Health Insurance and Job Mobility: Is There Evidence of Job-Lock?

Author

Listed:
  • Brigitte C. Madrian

Abstract

This paper assesses the impact of employer-provided health insurance on job mobility by exploring the extent to which workers are 'locked' into their jobs because preexisting conditions exclusions make it expensive for individuals with medical problems to relinquish their current health insurance. I estimate the degree of job-lock by comparing the difference in the turnover rates of those with high and low medical expenses for those with and without employer-provided health insurance. Using data from the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey, I estimate that job-lock reduces the voluntary turnover rate of those with employer-provided health insurance by 25 percent, from 16 percent to 12 percent per year.

Suggested Citation

  • Brigitte C. Madrian, 1993. "Employment-Based Health Insurance and Job Mobility: Is There Evidence of Job-Lock?," NBER Working Papers 4476, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4476
    Note: PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w4476.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manning, Willard G, et al, 1987. "Health Insurance and the Demand for Medical Care: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 251-277, June.
    2. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1979. "Job Matching and the Theory of Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 972-990, October.
    3. Ann P. Bartel & George J. Borjas, 1977. "Middle-Age Job Mobility: Its Determinants and Consequences," NBER Working Papers 0161, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Olivia S. Mitchell, 1982. "Fringe Benefits and Labor Mobility," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(2), pages 286-298.
    5. Mortensen, Dale T., 1987. "Job search and labor market analysis," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 15, pages 849-919, Elsevier.
    6. Brown, James N & Light, Audrey, 1992. "Interpreting Panel Data on Job Tenure," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(3), pages 219-257, July.
    7. Ann P. Bartel, 1982. "Wages, Nonwage Job Characteristics, and Labor Mobility," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 35(4), pages 578-589, July.
    8. Gustman, Alan L. & Steinmeier, Thomas L., 1993. "Pension portability and labor mobility : Evidence from the survey of income and program participation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 299-323, March.
    9. Jonathan Gruber & Brigitte C. Madrian, 1993. "Limited Insurance Portability and Job Mobility: The Effects of Public Policy on Job-Lock," NBER Working Papers 4479, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, 1993. "Health Insurance Provision and Labor Market Efficiency in the United States," NBER Working Papers 4388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Schiller, Bradley R & Weiss, Randall D, 1979. "The Impact of Private Pensions on Firm Attachment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 61(3), pages 369-380, August.
    12. Alan L. Gustman & Thomas L. Steinmeier, 1987. "Pensions, Efficiency Wages, and Job Mobility," NBER Working Papers 2426, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonathan Gruber, 1998. "Health Insurance and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 6762, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Steven G. Allen & Robert L. Clark & Ann A. McDermed, 1991. "Pensions, Bonding, and Lifetime Jobs," NBER Working Papers 3688, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jonathan Gruber & Brigitte C. Madrian, 1993. "Limited Insurance Portability and Job Mobility: The Effects of Public Policy on Job-Lock," NBER Working Papers 4479, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, 1994. "Health Insurance Provision and Labor Market Efficiency in the United States and Germany," NBER Chapters, in: Social Protection versus Economic Flexibility: Is There a Trade-Off?, pages 157-188, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. palacios, Robert & Whitehouse, Edward, 2006. "Civil-service pension schemes around the world," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 90340, The World Bank.
    6. Laura D. Quinby, 2020. "Do Deferred Retirement Benefits Retain Government Employees?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 469-509, March.
    7. Richard Disney & Carl Emmerson, 2002. "Choice of pension scheme and job mobility in Britain," IFS Working Papers W02/09, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    8. Jonathan R. Peterson, 2023. "Employee bonding and turnover efficiency," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 223-244, January.
    9. Garen, John & Berger, Mark & Scott, Frank, 1996. "Pensions, non-discrimination policies, and the employment of older workers," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 417-429.
    10. Robert L. Clark & Joseph F. Quinn, 1999. "Effects of Pensions on Labor Markets and Retirement," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 431, Boston College Department of Economics.
    11. Benoit Dostie & Todd Morris, 2025. "The Labour Market Impacts of Employer-Pension Plans," Cahiers de recherche / Working Papers 18, Institut sur la retraite et l'épargne / Retirement and Savings Institute.
    12. Fang, Tony & Messacar, Derek, 2019. "Voluntary Job Separations and Traditional versus Flexible Workplace Saving Plans: Evidence from Canada," IZA Discussion Papers 12262, IZA Network @ LISER.
    13. Ashok Thomas & Luca Spataro, 2013. "Pension funds and Market Efficiency: A review," Discussion Papers 2013/164, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    14. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, 1993. "Health Insurance Provision and Labor Market Efficiency in the United States," NBER Working Papers 4388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:305-355 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Kohlbrecher, Britta & Merkl, Christian & Nordmeier, Daniela, 2016. "Revisiting the matching function," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 350-374.
    17. Francisco J. Gil & Maria Jesus Martin & Angel Serrat, 1994. "Movilidad en el mercado de trabajo en España: un análisis econométrico de duración con riesgos en competencia," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 18(3), pages 517-537, September.
    18. Ari Hyytinen & Pekka Ilmakunnas, 2005. "Geneses of labour market turnover: Job search and entrepreneurial aspirations on-the-job," Labor and Demography 0501003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Parrado, E. & Wolff, E., 1999. "Occupational and Industry Mobility in the United States, 1969-1992," Working Papers 99-20, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
    20. Galizzi, Monica & Lang, Kevin, 1998. "Relative Wages, Wage Growth, and Quit Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(2), pages 367-391, April.
    21. Robert Lacroix & Claude Montmarquette & Sophie Mahseredjian & Nicole Froment, 1991. "Disparités interindustrielles dans les taux de départs volontaires : une étude empirique," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 67(4), pages 458-481.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

    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:nbr:nberwo:4476. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.