Three essays in empirical microeconomics: Organizational form and financing constraints, Medicaid stigma, and flexible spending accounts

The thesis covers three different topics in empirical microeconomics. The first chapter looks at how firms' organizational form affects investment financing constraints. I show conditions in which information asymmetry is severe and bankruptcy courts are ineffective, organizational status can affect creditors' lending rate. Using firm-level data from the Indonesian manufacturing sector, I find that firms with noncorporate organizational status are more financially constrained compared with corporate counterparts. The second chapter looks at how perceived stigma affects the participation in a welfare program. Using data from the National Survey of American Families, I compare the effect of stigma and policy benefits to participation between Medicaid versus Foodstamp program. My finding supports the hypothesis that stigma matters in deterring participation in welfare program. The third chapter investigates the effect of subsidizing out-of-pocket medical expenses through Flexible Spending Accounts program on coinsurance rates. The results from this chapter suggest that the program could cause the net after tax coinsurance rate to increase and therefore reduces the welfare losses from subsidizing health insurance premium.