Health insurance and female labor supply in Taiwan

We examine whether the availability of subsidized health insurance to the n on-working population in Taiwan affected the labor force participation of m arried women. Our empirical identification exploits the fact that such insu rance was first made available to wives of government employees, before bei ng made universally available in Taiwan in 1995. We find that the availabil ity of insurance for non-workers was associated with a 4 percentage point d ecline in labor force participation among married women, with larger declin es among women from low income households. Countries considering universal health insurance as in Taiwan should anticipate similar declines in labor f orce participation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.