Health Insurance as Economic Stimulus? Evidence from Long-Term Care Jobs.

Autor/inn/en	Hackmann, Martin B.; Heining, Jörg; Klimke, Roman; Polyakova, Maria; Seibert, Holger
Institution	National Bureau of Economic Research
Titel	Health Insurance as Economic Stimulus? Evidence from Long-Term Care Jobs. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Krankenversicherung als wirtschaftlicher Anreiz? Beweise aus Langzeitpflegejobs.
Quelle	Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research (2025), 99 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	NBER working paper / National Bureau of Economic Research. 33429
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monografie
Schlagwörter	Pflegeversicherung; Sozialabgaben; Beschäftigungseffekt; Einkommenseffekt; Öffentliche Einnahmen; Arbeitslosigkeit; Berufsbiografie; Erwerbsbeteiligung; Niedrig Qualifizierter; Altenpfleger; Statistik; Altenpflege; Arbeitspapier; Auswirkung; Steueraufkommen; Altenpflegehelfer; Deutschland
Abstract	"We leverage decades of administrative data and quasi-experimental variation in the introduction of universal long-term care (LTC) insurance in Germany in 1995 to examine whether health insurance expansions can stimulate local economies. We find that the LTC insurance rollout led not only to sizeable growth of the target LTC sector, but also to an aggregate fall in unemployment and an increase in the labor force participation. Quantitatively, a 10 percentage point increase in the share of insured LTC patients led to 4 more nursing home workers per 1,000 individuals age 65 and older (12% increase). Wages did not rise in the LTC sector or other sectors of the economy. The quality of newly hired nursing home workers declined, but this had no negative effect on old-age life expectancy. Overall, the insurance expansion brought lower-skilled workers into new jobs rather than reallocating workers away from other productive sectors. Our marginal value of public funds (MVPF) analysis suggests that the reform paid for itself when taking the positive fiscal externalities in the labor market into account. To understand which market primitives underpin our findings and to inform the external validity of our results, we develop and estimate a general model of labor markets with product-market subsidies in the presence of wedges, such as income taxes. Our model simulations show that the aggregate welfare effects of insurance expansions are theoretically ambiguous and depend centrally on the magnitude of frictions in input markets." The study refers to the period 1995-2008 (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku).
Erfasst von	Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nürnberg
Update	2025/3