Dissertation Defense: Anwita Mahajan
Candidate: Anwita Mahajan
Major: Economics
Advisor: John Rust, Ph.D.
Essays in Public Economics
In the first chapter, I examine the effects of the interaction between minimum wage increases and the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion on Medicaid take-up. I find that contrary to mechanical predictions, minimum wage hikes result in increased Medicaid take-up everywhere. But I suggest that the mechanisms causing these effects differ between Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states. Increases in Medicaid take-up in Medicaid expansion states are more consistent with crowd-out of private insurance – faced with higher labor costs, employers take advantage of Medicaid availability and reduce the generosity of employer sponsored insurance, prompting workers’ substitution towards Medicaid. In Medicaid non-expansion states, increases in Medicaid take-up are more consistent with reductions in uninsurance – minimum wage increases are associated with losses of benefits from other public programs so that workers take up Medicaid to replace the lost benefits. Overall, minimum wage increases affect the mix of benefits a worker receives from the government and firms.
In the second chapter, my coauthors and I study the effects of firm mergers on incumbent behavior and firm entry in the U.S. dialysis industry. We find that mergers cause a decrease in dialysis facilities and stations in markets. This is driven by a sharp reduction in both variables by the merging entity, which is only partially offset by an increase by non-merging firms. We do not find evidence for novel firm entry. Additionally, we find declines nurses and technicians at merging firms with the opposite effects at non-merging firms. Consistent with effects on capacity and quality, we find increased patient deaths at merging firms and higher patient recovery at non-merging firms.
In the third chapter, I document household income trajectories of low income workers over a span of four years. I show that workers in low income households in 2013 face substantial income fluctuations, with nearly 50% experiencing incomes above 190% of the FPL in 2016. These observations have important implications for sample selection choices when studying the effects of public policies targeting low income workers. They also have applications for policy administration, suggesting that current income eligibility review may be burdensome and imperfect.