Employer Provided Health Insurance and Job Lock. Abstract, Executive Summary andFinal Report

摘要

Job lock can occur when workers postpone job changes because they fear losingemployer-provided health insurance. If this type of job lock is prevalent, then the overall quality of matches between workers and employers is reduced and workers are on average less productive. The authors use the 1987 and 1990 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine whether job lock affects mobility of wages. They estimate mixed stock and flow hazard models of job tenure and standard wage equations that depend on employer-provided health insurance, health status, and the interaction of the two. This provides the authors with a difference in differences estimator of the effects of job lock. They find no statistically significant evidence that job lock affects job tenure or wages in either 1987 or 1990. As part of the examination of job lock, the authors have also studied the consequencers of error in the measurement of health insurance status, the effects of dual husband-wife employer-provided health insurance coverage on labor market outcomes, and the use of mixed hazard models to estimate the length of time with health insurance coverage.