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Does the availability of parental health insurance affect the college enrollment decision of young Americans?
ARTICLE

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Economics of Education Review Volume 32, Number 1, ISSN 0272-7757 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

The present study examines whether the college enrollment decision of young individuals (student full-time, student part-time, and non-student) depends on health insurance coverage via a parent's family health plan. Our findings indicate that the availability of parental health insurance can have significant effects on the probability that a young individual enrolls as a full-time student. A young individual who has access to health insurance via a parent can be up to 22% more likely to enroll as a full-time student than an individual without parental health insurance. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity this probability drops to 5.5% but is still highly significant. We also find that the marginal effect of the availability of parental health insurance has a larger effect on older students between ages 21 and 23. We provide a brief discussion about possible implications of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 in this context.

Citation

Jung, J., Hall, D.M.H. & Rhoads, T. (2013). Does the availability of parental health insurance affect the college enrollment decision of young Americans?. Economics of Education Review, 32(1), 49-65. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved June 6, 2023 from .

This record was imported from Economics of Education Review on March 1, 2019. Economics of Education Review is a publication of Elsevier.

Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.09.010

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