Eligibility Recertification and Dynamic Opt-In Incentives in Income-Tested Social Programs: Evidence from Medicaid/CHIP

A-Tier
Journal: American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Year: 2017
Volume: 9
Issue: 1
Pages: 241-76

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Conventional labor supply studies assume constant eligibility monitoring of income-tested program participants, but the time between two consecutive eligibility certifications (the "recertification period") can be as long as a year for Medicaid/CHIP recipients. In this paper, I study the optimal recertification period for this population. A long recertification period, while reducing monitoring costs, is predicted to induce program participation via temporary income adjustments. However, I find no support for this prediction using the 2001 and 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Given this, I propose a simple framework to compute the optimal recertification period and find 12 months to be its lower bound.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aejpol:v:9:y:2017:i:1:p:241-76
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-29