Volume 30, Number 1 (Winter) 1995
Wolfe, Barbara L., and Steven C. Hill. 1995. "The Effect of Health on the Work Effort of Single Mothers." Journal of Human Resources 30(1): 42-62.
Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation are used to investigate ways in which health influences a single mother's decision whether to work: the direct effect of a woman's health on work effort and potential wage; the impact of her children's health on hours available to work; and the impact of health on the values of health insurance and Medicaid associated with work and AFDC participation, respectively. Simulations suggest that wage subsidies and decreases in AFDC benefits are unlikely to increase the labor force participation of single mothers in poor health or with disabled children, as they face limitations on work hours and the kinds of work they can perform that prohibit them from earning enough to stay out of poverty. Extending health insurance coverage to all children of a single mothers regardless of AFDC status would induce a large percentage of these mothers to seek and accept employment, as would a pay-or-play insurance plan covering all workers (and their dependents) who work 15 or more hours a week.
Barbara L. Wolfe is a professor of economics and preventive medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Steven C. Hill is a graduate student in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This research was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, to the Institute for Research on Poverty; an NIMH Training Grant; and the Russell Sage Foundation. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors and not of the sponsoring institutions. The authors wish to thank the participants at a Harvard, MIT, Boston University health economics workshop, referees for this journal, and members of the health economics seminar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for helpful suggestions. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning in July 1995 through July 1998 from the authors at the Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706.
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