Health insurance and workers' retention in the construction industry

This thesis examines the effect of unionism on the provision of employer-provided health insurance in the U.S. construction industry and the impact of employer-provided health insurance on workers' mobility in the U.S., using the Survey of Income and Program Participation data of the 1996 panel and the 2001 panel. Despite a decline in unionization over time, I find that unionized workers still receive more health insurance benefits as compared to nonunionized workers. By using the first quarters of the 1996 panel and the 2001 panel, this thesis demonstrates that union workers have a higher probability of receiving health insurance regardless of the characteristics of workers, such as marital status and establishment size, as compared to nonunion workers. This conclusion can be explained as the result of collective bargaining, which is the most important factor in receiving health insurance regardless of other characteristics of union workers. Furthermore, I find that the differences in health insurance coverage between union and nonunion workers are due not only to unionization per se, but also to the specific characteristics of union workers. The effect of health insurance on labor mobility primarily focuses on the issue of job lock, a subject at the center of considerable policy debate due to the inefficiency of the health insurance system. Under the assumptions of general human capital theory, the main result of studies focusing on job lock is that employer-provided health insurance impedes the movement of human capital to its most efficient employment, implying an overall loss of productivity. However, under collective bargaining in the U.S. construction industry, multiemployer health insurance programs are established that allow workers to move from signatory contractor to signatory contractor without losing health insurance coverage. Collectively bargained multiemployer health insurance in construction provides union workers with portable insurance coverage as those workers move from signatory contractor to signatory contractor. Consistent with the perspective of industry lock, this thesis finds that employer-provided health insurance issued by union contractors, whether partial or full coverage, makes it more likely that unionized construction workers remain in the construction industry as compared to nonunionized construction workers with no health insurance.