Effect of health insurance coverage on labor allocation: Evidence from US farm households

In the past three decades, farm families have relied on government payments and off-farm income to reduce income risk and increase total household income. Many studies have analyzed the role of government payments; however, little is known about the impact of health insurance coverage on labor alloc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health economics review 2014-10, Vol.4 (19), p.1-11, Article 19
Main Authors: D'Antoni, Jeremy M, Mishra, Ashok K, Khanal, Aditya R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bivariate tobit
Copula
Coupled farm programs payments
Decoupled farm program payments
Dependence
Endogeneity
Health Care Management
Health Economics
Health insurance coverage
Health Services Research
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Off-farm labor supply
Pharmacoeconomics and Health Outcomes
Public Finance
Public Health
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Summary:In the past three decades, farm families have relied on government payments and off-farm income to reduce income risk and increase total household income. Many studies have analyzed the role of government payments; however, little is known about the impact of health insurance coverage on labor allocation. This study builds on previous literature by using copulas to test for dependence in the labor allocation, addressing the importance of fringe benefits to the farm household, and determining how these considerations affect our knowledge of the impact of fringe benefits on off-farm labor. The results indicate that the off-farm hours worked by the operator and spouse are jointly determined; health insurance coverage is an endogenous variable. Using the predicted probability of insurance coverage and joint estimation techniques, we find a positive and highly significant relationship with the hours worked off-farm. Further, we find that both coupled and decoupled payments are negatively correlated with the hours worked off-farm.
ISSN:2191-1991
2191-1991
DOI:10.1186/s13561-014-0019-1