IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pri/indrel/279.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Incidence of Mandated Employer-Provided Insurance: Lessons from Workers' Compensations Insurance

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Gruber

    (Harvard University)

  • Alan B. Krueger

    (Princeton University and NBER)

Abstract

Workers' compensation insurance provides cash payments and medical. benefits to workers who incur a work-related injury or illness. Many features of the workers' compensation program parallel features of proposed mandated employer-paid health insurance plans. This paper empirically examines the incidence of the workers' compensation program to infer the likely consequences of mandated health insurance proposals. In certain , industries, such as trucking and carpentry, workers' compensation insurance costs are quite large, and vary tremendously within states over time, and across states at a moment in time. This variation is used to identify the incidence of the program. Empirical analysis of two data sets suggest that changes in employers' costs of workers' compensation insurance are largely shifted to employees in the form of lower wages. In addition, higher insurance costs are found to have a negative but statistically insignificant effect on employment. The implied elasticity of labor demand from our results is about -.50.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Gruber & Alan B. Krueger, 1990. "The Incidence of Mandated Employer-Provided Insurance: Lessons from Workers' Compensations Insurance," Working Papers 659, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    • Handle: RePEc:pri:indrel:279
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dataspace.princeton.edu/bitstream/88435/dsp010c483j394/1/279.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert S. Smith & Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 1983. "Estimating Wage-Fringe Trade-Offs: Some Data Problems," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Labor Cost, pages 347-370, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Stuart Dorsey & Norman Walzer, 1983. "Workers' Compensation, Job Hazards, and Wages," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 36(4), pages 642-654, July.
    3. John M. Abowd & Orley Ashenfelter, 1980. "Anticipated Unemployment, Temporary Layoffs and Compensating Wage Differentials," Working Papers 517, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    4. Arleen Leibowitz, 1983. "Fringe Benefits in Employee Compensation," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Labor Cost, pages 371-394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Krueger, Alan B & Burton, John F, Jr, 1990. "The Employers' Costs of Workers' Compensation Insurance: Magnitudes, Determinants, and Public Policy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 228-240, May.
    6. Duncan, Greg J & Hill, Daniel H, 1985. "An Investigation of the Extent and Consequences of Measurement Error in Labor-Economic Survey Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(4), pages 508-532, October.
    7. Clark, Kim B & Freeman, Richard B, 1980. "How Elastic is the Demand for Labor?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(4), pages 509-520, November.
    8. Ashenfelter, Orley & Smith, Robert S, 1979. "Compliance with the Minimum Wage Law," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(2), pages 333-350, April.
    9. Card, David, 1990. "Unexpected Inflation, Real Wages, and Employment Determination in Union Contracts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(4), pages 669-688, September.
    10. Rosen, Sherwin, 1987. "The theory of equalizing differences," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 12, pages 641-692, Elsevier.
    11. Charles Brown, 1980. "Equalizing Differences in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(1), pages 113-134.
    12. John M. Abowd & Orley C. Ashenfelter, 1981. "Anticipated Unemployment, Temporary Layoffs, and Compensating Wage Differentials," NBER Chapters, in: Studies in Labor Markets, pages 141-170, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Jack E. Triplett, 1983. "The Measurement of Labor Cost," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number trip83-1, June.
    14. repec:bla:scandj:v:85:y:1983:i:1:p:1-15 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Holmlund, Bertil, 1983. "Payroll Taxes and Wage Inflation: The Swedish Experiences," Working Paper Series 68, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    16. Summers, Lawrence H, 1989. "Some Simple Economics of Mandated Benefits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 177-183, May.
    17. Robert S. Smith, 1979. "Compensating Wage Differentials and Public Policy: A Review," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 32(3), pages 339-352, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Jonathan Gruber, 1998. "Health Insurance and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 6762, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Anderson, Patricia M. & Meyer, Bruce D., 1997. "The effects of firm specific taxes and government mandates with an application to the U.S. unemployment insurance program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 119-145, August.
    5. 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.
    6. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:387-423 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Janet Currie, 1993. "Gender Gaps in Benefits Coverage," NBER Working Papers 4265, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Alexandre Mas & Amanda Pallais, 2020. "Alternative Work Arrangements," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 631-658, August.
    9. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:641-692 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Patricia M. Anderson & Bruce D. Meyer, 1994. "The Effects of Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Benefits on Layoffs Using Firm and Individual Data," NBER Working Papers 4960, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Pinheiro, Roberto & Visschers, Ludo, 2015. "Unemployment risk and wage differentials," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 397-424.
    12. Goldman, Dana P. & Sood, Neeraj & Leibowitz, Arleen, 2005. "The reallocation of compensation in response to health insurance premium increases," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 147-151, August.
    13. Lubotsky, Darren & Olson, Craig A., 2015. "Premium copayments and the trade-off between wages and employer-provided health insurance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 63-79.
    14. Josefa Ramoni Perazzi, 2007. "The compensating differential principle in the public and private sector: A multivariate statistical analysis approach," Economía, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (IIES). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales. Universidad de Los Andes. Mérida, Venezuela, vol. 32(24), pages 95-112, july-dece.
    15. Joseph G. Altonji & Emiko Usui, 2007. "Work Hours, Wages, and Vacation Leave," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(3), pages 408-428, April.
    16. Viscusi, W Kip, 1993. "The Value of Risks to Life and Health," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 1912-1946, December.
    17. Drazen, Allan & Hamermesh, Daniel & Obst, Norman P., 1982. "The Variable Employment Elasticity Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275358, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    18. Jay Bhattacharya & M. Kate Bundorf, 2005. "The Incidence of the Healthcare Costs of Obesity," NBER Working Papers 11303, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3309-3416 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Gyourko, Joseph & Tracy, Joseph, 1989. "The Importance of Local Fiscal Conditions in Analyzing Local Labor Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1208-1231, October.
    21. Danielle Lamb & Rafael Gomez & Milad Moghaddas, 2022. "Unions and hazard pay for COVID‐19: Evidence from the Canadian Labour Force Survey," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 606-634, September.
    22. Bossavie, Laurent & Cho, Yoonyoung & Heath, Rachel, 2023. "The effects of international scrutiny on manufacturing workers: Evidence from the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    23. Christine Jolls, 2007. "Employment Law and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 13230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    mandated benefit; incidence shifting; workers' compensation insurance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pri:indrel:279. 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: Bobray Bordelon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/irprius.html .

    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.