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Employer-provided health insurance and labor supply of married women. This work presents new evidence on the effect of husbands' health insurance on wives' labor supply. Previous cross-sectional studies have estimated a significant negative effect of spousal coverage on wives' labor supply. However, these estimates potentially suffer from bias because wives' labor supply and the health insurance status of their husbands are interdependent and chosen simultaneously. This paper attempts to obtain consistent estimates by using several panel data methods. In particular, the likely correlation between unobserved characteristics of husbands and wives affecting labor supply--such as preferences for work--can be captured using panel data on intact marriages, and potential joint job choice decisions can be controlled using fixed-effects instrumental variables methods. The findings, using data from the Current Population Survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, suggest that the negative effect of spousal coverage on labor supply found in cross-sections results mainly from spousal sorting and selection. There is only a small estimable effect of spousal coverage on wives' labor supply.

Health insurance tax credits and health insurance coverage of low-income single mothers. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 introduced a refundable tax credit for low-income families who purchased health insurance coverage for their children. This health insurance tax credit (HITC) existed during tax years 1991, 1992, and 1993, and was then rescinded. We use Current Population Survey data and a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the HITC's effect on private health insurance coverage of low-income single mothers. The findings suggest that during 1991-1993, the health insurance coverage of single mothers was about 6 percentage points higher than it would have been in the absence of the HITC.