The Impact of Youth Medicaid Eligibility on Adult Incarceration

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Arenberg, Samuel; Neller, Seth; Stripling, Sam
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Tennessee System; University of Tennessee Knoxville; University of Tennessee System; University of Tennessee Knoxville; Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20200785
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 121-156
• 关键词: regression discontinuity designs; health-insurance; crime evidence; child health; school; delinquency; adolescents; expansion; diagnosis; arrests

摘要

This paper identifies an important spillover associated with public health insurance: reduced incarceration. In 1990, Congress passed legislation that increased Medicaid eligibility for individuals born after September 30, 1983. We show that Black children born just after the cutoff are 5 percent less likely to be incarcerated by age 28, driven primarily by a decrease in incarcerations connected to financially motivated offenses. Children of other races, who experienced almost no gain in Medicaid coverage as a result of the policy, demonstrate no such decline. We find that reduced incarceration in adulthood substantially offsets the initial costs of expanding eligibility.