IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jopoec/v22y2009i2p311-350.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The labor market effects of national health insurance: evidence from Taiwan

Author

Listed:
  • Kamhon Kan
  • Yen-Ling Lin

Abstract

This paper investigates the impacts of national health insurance on the labor market, by considering the case of Taiwan, which implemented national health insurance in March 1995. Taiwan’s national health insurance is financed by premiums, which are proportional to an employee’s salary. These premiums may introduce distortions to the labor market. Based on repeated cross-sections of individual data we find that, on average, private sector employees’ work hours declined relative to their public sector counterparts, while their relative wage rates were almost unchanged with the introduction of national health insurance. The results suggest that neither private sector employers nor their employees were able to shift their premium burden to each other.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Kamhon Kan & Yen-Ling Lin, 2009. "The labor market effects of national health insurance: evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(2), pages 311-350, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:22:y:2009:i:2:p:311-350
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-007-0135-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00148-007-0135-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00148-007-0135-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruce, Donald, 2000. "Effects of the United States tax system on transitions into self-employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 545-574, September.
    2. Kugler, Adriana & Kugler, Maurice, 2003. "The Labor Market Effects of Payroll Taxes in a Middle-Income Country: Evidence from Colombia," IZA Discussion Papers 852, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Mark Stabile, 2004. "Payroll Taxes and the Decision to be Self-Employed," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 11(1), pages 31-53, January.
    4. Adriana Kugler & Maurice Kugler, 2003. "The labor market effects of payroll taxes in a middle-income country: Evidence from Colombia," Economics Working Papers 721, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    5. Lee, Lung-Fei, 1983. "Generalized Econometric Models with Selectivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(2), pages 507-512, March.
    6. Anderson, Patricia M. & Meyer, Bruce D., 2000. "The effects of the unemployment insurance payroll tax on wages, employment, claims and denials," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1-2), pages 81-106, October.
    7. Jonathan Gruber & Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "The Incidence of Mandated Employer-Provided Insurance: Lessons from Workers' Compensation Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 111-144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Vella, Francis & Verbeek, Marno, 1999. "Estimating and Interpreting Models with Endogenous Treatment Effects," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(4), pages 473-478, October.
    9. Borjas, George J., 2003. "Welfare reform, labor supply, and health insurance in the immigrant population," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 933-958, November.
    10. Lindsay, Cotton M & Zycher, Benjamin, 1984. "Substitution in Public Spending: Who Pays for Canadian National Health Insurance?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(3), pages 337-359, July.
    11. Gruber, Jonathan & Hanratty, Maria, 1995. "The Labor-Market Effects of Introducing National Health Insurance: Evidence from Canada," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 163-173, April.
    12. Mete, Cem & Schultz, T. Paul, 2002. "Health and Labor Force Participation of the Elderly in Taiwan," Center Discussion Papers 28470, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    13. Summers, Lawrence H, 1989. "Some Simple Economics of Mandated Benefits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 177-183, May.
    14. Hanratty, Maria J, 1996. "Canadian National Health Insurance and Infant Health," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 276-284, March.
    15. Lung-Fei Lee, 1982. "Some Approaches to the Correction of Selectivity Bias," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(3), pages 355-372.
    16. Patricia M. Anderson & Bruce D. Meyer, "undated". "The Incidence of a Firm-Varying Payroll Tax: The Case of Unemployment Insurance," IPR working papers 95-23, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.
    17. Gertler, Paul J., 1998. "On the road to social health insurance: the Asian experience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 717-732, April.
    18. Shin‐Yi Chou & Jin‐Tan Liu & James K. Hammitt, 2004. "National Health Insurance and Technology Adoption: Evidence from Taiwan," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(1), pages 26-38, January.
    19. Chou, Y. J. & Staiger, Douglas, 2001. "Health insurance and female labor supply in Taiwan," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 187-211, March.
    20. John Mullahy, 1999. "Interaction Effects and Difference-in-Difference Estimation in Loglinear Models," NBER Technical Working Papers 0245, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Chou, Shin-Yi & Liu, Jin-Tan & Hammitt, James K., 2003. "National Health Insurance and precautionary saving: evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 1873-1894, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nga Le Thi Quynh & Groot, Wim & Tomini, Sonila M. & Tomini, Florian, 2017. "Effects of health insurance on labour supply: A systematic review," MERIT Working Papers 2017-017, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    2. Hsin-Ling Hsieh & Shin-Yi Chou & Echu Liu & Hsien-Ming Lien, 2015. "Strengthening or Weakening? The Impact of Universal Health Insurance on Intergenerational Coresidence in Taiwan," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 883-904, June.
    3. Shao-Hsun Keng & Shin-Yi Wu, 2014. "Living Happily Ever After? The Effect of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance on the Happiness of the Elderly," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 783-808, August.
    4. Yu-Chen Kuo & Jia-Huey Lin, 2020. "Picking the lock: how universal healthcare programs influence entrepreneurial activities," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 3-24, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xinxin Ma & Jie Cheng, 2020. "The Impact of Social Insurance Contributions on Firms Employment and Wages: Evidence from China Employer-Employee Matching Survey Data," Asian Development Policy Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 8(1), pages 42-60, March.
    2. Alfonso Arpaia & Giuseppe Carone, 2004. "Do labour taxes (and their composition) affect wages in the short and in the long run?," Public Economics 0411004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Cruces, Guillermo & Galiani, Sebastian & Kidyba, Susana, 2010. "Payroll taxes, wages and employment: Identification through policy changes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 743-749, August.
    4. Alfonso Arpaia & Giuseppe Carone, 2004. "Do labour taxes (and their composition) affect wages in the short and the long run? - Alfonso Arpaia and Giuseppe Carone," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 216, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    5. Komamura, Kohei & Yamada, Atsuhiro, 2004. "Who bears the burden of social insurance? Evidence from Japanese health and long-term care insurance data," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 565-581, December.
    6. Kim, Jinyoung & Kim, Seonghoon & Koh, Kanghyock, 2022. "Labor market institutions and the incidence of payroll taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    7. Adam Wagstaff, 2010. "Social health insurance reexamined," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(5), pages 503-517, May.
    8. Jonathan Gruber, 2000. "Disability Insurance Benefits and Labor Supply," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(6), pages 1162-1183, December.
    9. Kelly D. Edmiston, 2006. "Workers’ Compensation and State Employment Growth," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 121-145, February.
    10. Chou, Shin-Yi & Grossman, Michael & Liu, Jin-Tan, 2014. "The impact of National Health Insurance on birth outcomes: A natural experiment in Taiwan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 75-91.
    11. Xinxin Ma & Dongyang Zhang, 2018. "The Incidence of Social Security Payroll Taxes: Evidence From China," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 9(4), pages 1-18, October.
    12. Ángel Melguizo & José González-Páramo, 2013. "Who bears labour taxes and social contributions? A meta-analysis approach," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 247-271, August.
    13. Junya Hamaaki & Yasushi Iwamoto, 2010. "A Reappraisal Of The Incidence Of Employer Contributions To Social Security In Japan," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 61(3), pages 427-441, September.
    14. Alain Carpentier & Céline Nauges & Arnaud Reynaud & Alban Thomas, 2006. "Effets de la délégation sur le prix de l'eau potable en France. Une analyse à partir de la littérature sur les « effets de traitement »," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(3), pages 1-19.
    15. Nielsen, Ingrid & Smyth, Russell, 2008. "Who bears the burden of employer compliance with social security contributions? Evidence from Chinese firm level data," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 230-244, June.
    16. Kohei Komamura & Atsuhiro Yamada, 2004. "Who Bears the Burden of Social Insurance?," NBER Working Papers 10339, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Hsin‐Ling Hsieh, 2008. "Do Adult Children Matter?—The Effects Of National Health Insurance On Retirement Behavior: Evidence From Taiwan," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(2), pages 317-334, April.
    18. Wagstaff, Adam & Pradhan, Menno, 2005. "Health insurance impacts on health and nonmedical consumption in a developing country," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3563, The World Bank.
    19. Bedi, Arjun S. & Shiferaw, Admasu & Söderbom, Måns & Alemu Zewdu, Getnet, 2022. "Social insurance reform and workers’ compensation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    20. Jonathan Gruber & Aaron Yelowitz, 1999. "Public Health Insurance and Private Savings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(6), pages 1249-1274, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    National health insurance; Labor supply; Difference-in-difference; J22; J31; I38;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:22:y:2009:i:2:p:311-350. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.