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Is There a Link Between Employer-Provided Health Insurance and Job Mobility? Evidence from Recent Micro Data

Author

Listed:
  • Chute, Benjamin W.

    (Middlebury College)

  • Wunnava, Phanindra V.

    (Middlebury College)

Abstract
This study investigates the prevalence and severity of job immobility induced by the provision of employer-sponsored health insurance – a phenomenon known as 'job-lock'. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth from 1994 to 2010, job-lock is identified by measuring the impact of employer-sponsored health insurance on voluntary job turnover frequency. Estimates from a logistic regression with random effects indicate that job-lock reduces voluntary job turnover by 20% per year. These results that are consistent with past research and are also supported by two alternative identification strategies employed in this paper. Our results indicate a persistence of the job-lock effect, despite two major policy interventions designed to mitigate it (COBRA and HIPAA) and signal a fundamental misunderstanding of its causes. Both policies made health insurance more portable between employers, but this paper presents evidence from a quasi-natural experiment to suggest that the problem is a lack of viable alternative private sources of health insurance. In this model, we find evidence that access to health insurance through one's spouse or partner dramatically increases voluntary job turnover. This finding has significant bearing on predicted impacts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) and the individual health insurance exchanges catalyzed by it; these new markets will create risk pools that may 'unlock' a job-locked individual by providing them a viable alternative to employer-sponsored health insurance.

Suggested Citation

  • Chute, Benjamin W. & Wunnava, Phanindra V., 2015. "Is There a Link Between Employer-Provided Health Insurance and Job Mobility? Evidence from Recent Micro Data," IZA Discussion Papers 8989, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8989
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leemore Dafny & Kate Ho & Mauricio Varela, 2013. "Let Them Have Choice: Gains from Shifting Away from Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and toward an Individual Exchange," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 32-58, February.
    2. Albert A. Okunade & Phanindra V. Wunnava, 2002. "Availability of Health Insurance and Gender Differences in “Job-Lock” Behavior: Evidence from NLSY," Journal of Forensic Economics, National Association of Forensic Economics, vol. 15(2), pages 195-204, April.
    3. Brigitte C. Madrian, 1994. "Employment-Based Health Insurance and Job Mobility: Is there Evidence of Job-Lock?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 27-54.
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    5. Jonathan Gruber & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2002. "Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Job Mobility: A Critical Review of the Literature," JCPR Working Papers 255, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
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    9. Kanika Kapur, 1998. "The Impact of Health on Job Mobility: A Measure of Job Lock," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(2), pages 282-298, January.
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    11. Cynthia Bansak & Steven Raphael, 2008. "The State Children's Health Insurance Program and Job Mobility: Identifying Job Lock among Working Parents in Near-Poor Households," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(4), pages 564-579, July.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    difference-in-difference; random effects; Affordable Care Act (2010); HIPAA (1996); COBRA (1985); job-lock; voluntary job switch;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

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