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Abstract

This paper capitalizes on a natural experiment created by differences in Medicaid expansion under The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). A difference and difference model comparing states that did and did not expand Medicaid is conducted to investigate if providing an alternative and low-cost source of health insurance affects self-employment rates overall and across different demographic groups. The results suggest that living in a state that expanded Medicaid was associated with a 1.4 percent increase in the likelihood that an individual will be self-employed and that this effect is heterogeneous across different demographics, being largest among African Americans.

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