Working Paper: NBER ID: w16139
Authors: Neeraj Kaushal; Robert Kaestner
Abstract: We study how the health and health insurance coverage of Mexican immigrants change with time in the US. Cross-sectional analyses suggest that approximately three decades of residency in the US is associated with a 9 to 11 percentage point (12% to 15%) decline in the probability of being uninsured for Mexican men and women. However, analysis using longitudinal data and fixed effects methods show that time in the US is unrelated to health insurance coverage. Both cross sectional and longitudinal analyses provide evidence of unhealthy assimilation--self-reported health declines slightly with time in the US.
Keywords: Mexican immigrants; health trajectories; health insurance; assimilation
JEL Codes: H00; I18; J10; J11; J88
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| age at arrival (J11) | health insurance coverage (I13) |
| age at arrival (J11) | self-reported health (I10) |
| period of arrival (C41) | health insurance coverage (I13) |
| period of arrival (C41) | self-reported health (I10) |
| years since immigration (K37) | health insurance coverage (I13) |
| years since immigration (K37) | self-reported health (I10) |
| time in the US (N92) | health insurance coverage (I13) |
| time in the US (N92) | self-reported health (I10) |