In preparation for ABFM’s upcoming conference in Denver, I am doing a series of profiles on the doctoral students on the job market.

Ngoc Dao (SPEA – Indiana University) is presenting “The New Federal Minimum Wage Mandates on Homecare Workers: Its Impact on Cost of Homehealth Services” in the Saturday 11:15 session on Non-Profit Finance and its Implications. Here is the abstract:

The rapid growth of the home care industry coincides with increases in the proportion of the population over 65 years of age and more likely to need assistance with basic daily activities due to illness or disability. Yet the growth in home care use has been accompanied by concerns about the quality of the care provided. Higher wages and better legal protection might improve the quality of home health care services. This study examines the 2013 Home Care Rule promulgated by the Department of Labor, which added home care workers to the groups covered under the Federal Minimum Wage Mandate with minimum hourly and overtime rates. Taking advantage of a variation in state minimum wage laws before and after the new Rule took place, I use a conventional Difference-in-Differences approach to estimate its impact on various labor outcomes including employment (extensive and intensive margin), hourly wage rates, income, and social program participation. Findings from this study suggest that there was little effect on the extensive margin (employment), but on the intensive margin, fulltime employment and worked hours decreased by 3-5%. The results also show that although wages increased substantially (8-16% depending on treatment status) among homecare workers, the Home Care Rule was ineffective in reducing the reliance on public assistance programs such as food stamp and Medicaid at least in the short-run.

Brad Heim is chairing her dissertation, which is on a variety of federal policies and their effects on social programs.

You can find Ngoc Dao’s CV here.