The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Self-Employment: Early Evidence

This paper provides early evidence on the impact of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014 on the decision to be self-employed. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we utilize pre-reform variation in state individual market health insurance regulations, and find that the ACA did not have a differential impact on self-employment rates in states for which the ACA was a larger change in policy. Similarly, we find no significant impact of the ACA in specifications that utilize variation across individuals in characteristics that could make it harder for them to purchase insurance if they left their current employer. * Email: [email protected]. Phone: 812-855-9783. Address: 1315 E 10 St. Bloomington, IN 47405 ** Email: [email protected].