Full Citation
Title: Essays on the Policy Responses to Labor Market Risks Borne by Workers
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2020
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Abstract: This dissertation explores the extent to which policy alleviates or exacerbates labor market risks borne by workers looking at three different policies: Right-to-Work (RTW) laws, disability insurance, and state-level minimum wages. My first chapter examines impact of state RTW laws using Current Population Survey (CPS) data. Employing a state fixed effects model and a Synthetic Control design focusing on Wisconsin’s RTW legislation, I find that RTW laws are associated with sizeable increases in public sector free riding by union covered workers and considerable decreases in private sector union membership and coverage. RTW laws also substantially decrease private sector employer health insurance contributions and marginally reduce private sector wages. Given the role that union decline has had increasing worker precarity, it appears that RTW laws exacerbate labor market risks for workers. My second chapter examines the impacts of changes to disability insurance eligibility in the United Kingdom using an individual fixed effects model and data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Increased reassessment using more stringent eligibility criteria at the local level is associated with a higher probability of disability receipt. However, my findings are suggestive of policy spillover effects, wherein individuals assigned to work-conditioned benefits seek out other benefits. While relatively well-targeted, this reform created temporary financial uncertainty for a vulnerable population and induced those assigned to workconditioned benefits to find other methods of support. My third chapter employs the American Community Survey (ACS) data and a Quadruple Difference (DDDD) model to examine the compositional effects of state minimum wage increases, specifically on the rates of self-employment within occupations. A state minimum wage increase is associated with a decrease in self-employment, particularly unincorporated self-employment within lowwage occupations with flexible work hours. Self-employed workers are induced into hired employment when the wage they can expect to earn from hired employment matches or exceeds expected earnings in self-employment. Therefore the minimum wage, in allowing for workers to select into work arrangements that are inherently less risky, may present another policy lever for reducing the labor market risks borne by workers.
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Authors: Bono-Lunn, Dillan
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department: Department of Public Policy
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Publisher Location: Chapel Hill
Pages: 1-199
Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Population Health and Health Systems, Poverty and Welfare
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