The effect of self-employed health insurance subsidies on self-employment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Heim, Bradley T.; Lurie, Ithai Z.
• 署名单位: Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington; United States Department of the Treasury
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.08.007
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 995-1007
• 关键词: self-employment; health insurance; Exit and entry; Tax deduction

摘要

This paper estimates the effect of an increase in the deductibility of health insurance premiums for self-employed individuals on the probability of being self-employed. Using a panel of tax returns from 1999 to 2004, we estimate fixed effects instrumental variable regressions for the probability of being self-employed, entering into self-employment, and exiting from self-employment. Our results suggest that this policy increased the probability of being self-employed by 1.5 percentage points, and increased the probability that a taxpayer would be primarily or exclusively self-employed by 1.1 and 0.35 percentage points respectively. These effects explain about a third to a half of the total increase in self-employment by these definitions over the sample period. We also find that the probability of entering self-employment increased by 0.8 percentage points and find suggestive evidence that the probability of exit decreased by 2.8 percentage points. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.