Public Health Insurance Reform And Womens Labor Supply Decisions

Abstract

The literature has explored the effects of welfare policy reforms on womens labor supply. However, a comprehensive analysis has not been conducted regarding the effects of individual policy instruments in public assistance programs. This paper examines whether policy instruments in the public health insurance program affect womens labor supply decisions, specifically, after we control for the effects of policy instruments in the welfare program. The results indicate that, on average, public health insurance policy instruments did not affect womens labor supply. Our analysis implies that, regarding the recent reform on public assistance programs, the crowd-out of private health insurance for public health insurance is less likely to arise via a reduced labor supply channel.