We analyze the incidence of public-employee health benefits. Because these benefits are negotiated through the …’ benefits are difficult to monitor, contributing to benefit oriented, and often under-funded, compensation schemes. …

Increases in the cost of providing health insurance must have some effect on labor markets, either in lower wages … that rising health insurance costs over the 1980s increased the hours worked of those with health insurance by up to 3 … percent. We argue that this occurs because health insurance is a fixed cost, and as it becomes more expensive to provide …

This paper examines why health insurance coverage fell despite the lengthy economic boom of the 1990s. I show that … health insurance. Estimates suggest that increased costs to employees can explain the entire decline in take-up rates in the …