Abstract:
Previous work documents that leaving school in an economic downturn persistently depresses career outcomes as measured by wages, earnings, and other markers of labor market success. In this study I test whether leaving school in an economic downturn influences access to employer-sponsored health insurance. Using a long panel of workers drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort, I model the likelihood that a worker has access to employer-sponsored health insurance from initial labor market entrance through mid-career. I address the potential endogeneity of time and location of school-leaving with instrumental variables. My results suggest that leaving school in an economic downturn lowers the probability of access to employer-sponsored health insurance and this disparity is statistically distinguishable from zero 18 years after school-leaving.