The Trade-Offs of Welfare Policies in Labor Markets with Informal Jobs: The Case of the “Seguro Popular” Program in Mexico
研究了墨西哥“全民保险”计划对非正规就业者的影响，发现该计划导致中小企业正规就业减少，提示扩大医保覆盖需权衡劳动力从正规部门流出的代价。
In 2002, the Mexican government began an effort to improve health access to the 50 million uninsured in Mexico, a program known as Seguro Popular (SP). The SP offered virtually free health insurance to informal workers, altering the incentives to operate in the formal economy. We find that the SP program had a negative effect on the number of employers and employees formally registered in small and medium firms (up to 50 employees). Our results suggest that the positive gains of expanding health coverage should be weighed against the implications of the reallocation of labor away from the formal sector.