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Immigration Relief and Insurance Coverage: Evidence from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

  • Jung Bae ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 8. Juli 2020
The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy
Aus der Zeitschrift The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy Band 20 Heft 3

Abstract

I find that the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which conferred protection from deportation and work authorization to undocumented immigrants who had been brought to the U.S. as children, increased eligible immigrants’ likelihood of having health insurance coverage. Exploiting a cutoff rule in the eligibility criteria of DACA, I implement a difference-in-regression-discontinuities design. The insured rate increased by up to 4.3 percentage points more for DACA-eligible immigrants than for ineligible immigrants following DACA. Two-thirds of this increase is accounted for by upticks in employer-sponsored and privately purchased insurance. The findings are also consistent with immigrants becoming less averse to approach health institutions, and taking up medical financial assistance at a higher rate.

Keywords: undocumented immigrants; deferred action for childhood arrivals; health insurance
JEL classifications: I13; J15; J61
Corresponding author: Jung Bae, Department of Economics, Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences, 2825 Neil Ave, Apt 815, Columbus, OH, 43210-1326, USA, E-mail:
Appendix
Figure A.1: Heatmap of ACS Hispanic Sample, with DACA Eligibility Regions.Each cell contains the count of individuals in the sample for each year of immigration and year of birth pairing. Includes all non-US-citizens in the 2008 to 2016 American Community Survey 1% public use samples who were born in Mexico and graduated from high school.
Figure A.1:

Heatmap of ACS Hispanic Sample, with DACA Eligibility Regions.

Each cell contains the count of individuals in the sample for each year of immigration and year of birth pairing. Includes all non-US-citizens in the 2008 to 2016 American Community Survey 1% public use samples who were born in Mexico and graduated from high school.

Table A.1:

Specification Tests.

Order and Specification of fAICBICEstimated Diff-in-RD
Piecewise linear54,424.7254,709.740.0426*** (0.0112)
Piecewise quadratic54,412.7354,697.760.0426*** (0.0113)
Global quadratic54,424.4854,709.50.0426*** (0.0112)
Piecewise cubic54,399.954,684.920.0425*** (0.0112)
Global cubic54,417.0854,702.10.0425*** (0.0112)
Piecewise quartic54,393.7254,678.740.0425*** (0.0112)
Global quartic54,415.5454,700.560.0425*** (0.0112)
Piecewise quintic54,389.554,674.530.0426*** (0.0113)
Global quintic54,407.0454,692.060.0426*** (0.0113)

  1. Reports results from Akaike Information Criterion and Bayesian Information Criterion tests for performing the main analysis of Table 2 under various functional forms of f. AIC=2k−2lnL and BIC=klnN−2lnL, where k is the number of estimated parameters, N is the sample size, and lnLis the maximized value of the model log-likelihood. N=41650 in all BIC calculations. Bolded row in each column highlights the “best” specification that yields the smallest value of each statistic. The difference between a “piecewise” specification and a “global” specification of the same order is whether the function is allowed to be different on either side of the RD cutoff. The piecewise versions include extra terms that allow the shape of the function to vary across the cutoff. Estimated coefficients and standard errors (clustered by age at immigration) are rounded to four digits under decimal point to show changes across specifications.

Table A.2:

Medicaid coverage increases for DACA-eligible individuals in states offering state-funded medicaid.

All statesMANYCANY, CA, MA
Eligible⋅PostDACA (Diff-in-RD)0.015** (0.006)0.026 (0.173)0.018 (0.037)–0.011 (0.014)–0.006 (0.014)
N41,6501241,22514,29015,639

  1. Each column reports the coefficient on Eligible⋅PostDACA in a separate regression of Table 2, Specification (2), where the dependent variable is replaced with whether the individual reports having Medicaid (or other government-funded insurance) coverage and the sample is restricted to a particular state. (Massachusetts is estimated without birth year or immigration year controls due to a sample size of only 124). *p < 0.1; **p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01.

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Received: 2019-09-13
Accepted: 2020-04-03
Published Online: 2020-07-08

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Research Articles
  2. The Gender-bias Effect of Test Scoring and Framing: A Concern for Personnel Selection and College Admission
  3. Gender and Educational Variations in the Earnings Premiums of Occupational Credentials
  4. Microfinance and Moneylenders: Long-run Effects of MFIs on Informal Credit Market in Bangladesh
  5. Movie Variety and the City
  6. Hi-tech Sexism? Evidence from Bangladesh
  7. Microfinance and Vulnerability to Seasonal Famine in a Rural Economy: Evidence from Monga in Bangladesh
  8. Immigration Relief and Insurance Coverage: Evidence from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
  9. Complementarities between Labour Market Institutions and their Causal Impact on Youth Labour Market Outcomes
  10. Corporate Social Responsibility and Wage Inequality
  11. Letter
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https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2019-0305
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
undocumented immigrants; deferred action for childhood arrivals; health insurance

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Research Articles
  2. The Gender-bias Effect of Test Scoring and Framing: A Concern for Personnel Selection and College Admission
  3. Gender and Educational Variations in the Earnings Premiums of Occupational Credentials
  4. Microfinance and Moneylenders: Long-run Effects of MFIs on Informal Credit Market in Bangladesh
  5. Movie Variety and the City
  6. Hi-tech Sexism? Evidence from Bangladesh
  7. Microfinance and Vulnerability to Seasonal Famine in a Rural Economy: Evidence from Monga in Bangladesh
  8. Immigration Relief and Insurance Coverage: Evidence from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
  9. Complementarities between Labour Market Institutions and their Causal Impact on Youth Labour Market Outcomes
  10. Corporate Social Responsibility and Wage Inequality
  11. Letter
  12. The Optimal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Schedule: A Trapezoid or a Triangle?
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