Health Insurance Coverage and Firm Performance: Evidence Using Firm Level Data from Vietnam

In literature, there is limited direct evidence regarding the effect of health insurance coverage on firm performance and worker productivity. We study the impacts of health insurance on medium-and large-scale domestic private firms' performance and productivity in Vietnam, using a large firm level census dataset. We find statistically, but suggestive, positive health insurance effects on both aggregate profit and profit per worker for both complying and non-complying firms when using the full sample. We further restrict the sample to specific industries. The positive health insurance effects could exist for both complying and non-complying firms in the heavy manufacturing and construction sector, while such positive effects could be only significant for complying firms in the wholesale/retail sectors. We could not find any evidence of positive health insurance effects in the light manufacturing sector. These results imply that the impacts of health insurance could be industry specific.