The Impact of Health Reform on Job Mobility: Evidence from Massachusetts

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of the implementation of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform on job mobility. Theoretically, the effect is ambiguous, as the public health insurance expansion and low-income subsidies would be expected to increase mobility, but the employer mandate and price effects could either increase or decrease mobility depending on the relative impacts on an individual's current job and the attractiveness of other modes of employment or retirement. Utilizing data from tax returns that span 2002–10, in which job changes are identified using employer information reported on W-2 forms, we estimate the impact of the Massachusetts reform using a difference-in-differences approach, comparing the prevalence of job changes in Massachusetts to those of a comparison group, while controlling for individual fixed effects. The estimates suggest the Massachusetts reform generally did not have a significant impact on job separations overall, though it may have increased separations from primary jobs among married women. There is evidence, however, that mobility increased among low-income married couples, young married men, and older married women.