Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/215364 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12968
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The Affordable Care Act's Dependent Coverage Mandate (DCM) induced approximately two million young adults to join parental employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) plans. This study is the first to explore the impact of the DCM on criminal arrests, a potentially important externality. Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, we find that the DCM induced an 11 percent reduction in criminal incidents involving arrestees ages 19 to 25, driven by property crime declines. An examination of the underlying mechanisms suggests that declines in large out-of-pocket expenditures for health care, increased educational attainment, and increases in parent-adult child cohabitation may explain these crime declines. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the DCM generated approximately $3.1 billion in annual social benefits from crime reduction.
Subjects: 
Affordable Care Act
Dependent Coverage Mandate
crime
arrests
JEL: 
I13
I18
K14
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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