Evasion of “mandatory” social health insurance for the formal sector: evidence from Lao PDR

Table 1 Background characteristics of sample

Firm characteristics	SSO (n = 65)	Non-SSO (n = 65)	p-value
Industry category (% of firms)
Manufacturing	45.9	29.0	0.0084**
Construction	2.4	24.0
Trade	17.7	10.6
Services	34.1	36.5
Total	100	100
Ownership (private/state)
Ownership 1: State-owned or partially state-owned (ref = 100 % private)	24.7	2.5	0.005**
Ownership 2 (% of firms):
100 % domestic	53.3	88.2	0.001**
100 % foreign	24.3	9.4
Mixed partnership (domestic & foreign)	22.4	2.4
Total	100	100
Employees
Mean # of permanent employees	144.11	53.01	0.068*
Mean # of temp employees	55.53	8.98	0.071*
Mean # of daily wage employees	5.41	1.21	0.121
Permanent employees as a % of workforce	78.3	76.7	0.230
% of workforce female	37.7	38.8	0.856
Size of company (financial)
Company Assets (2008) (%)
< 1 billion kip	31.3	35.0	0.184
1-10 billion kip	43.1	53.3
> 10 billion kip	25.6	11.7
Company Revenues (2008) (%)
< 1 billion kip	31.9	54.7	0.036**
1-10 billion kip	40.5	36.1
> 10 billion kip	28.0	9.2
Other firm characteristics (%)
>1 service outlet/factor/branch/store	71.8	79.1	0.429
Member of business organization	55.8	29.8	0.011**
Higher than average risk	12.7	16.1	0.628
Age distribution (at least 70 % of employees are <35 years)	67.4	69.1	0.868
Mean company turnover (annual)	8.5	8.5	0.982
Level of tax payment
central	48.2	20.1	0.011**
provincial	40.9	46.2
district	11.0	34.0
Characteristics of company head (%)
Nationality (head is Laotian)	64.0	86.8	0.008**
Mean age (years)	51.8	49.3	0.307
Gender (head is male)	85.3	76.7	0.296
Education of head (attended university/college or higher)	86.3	57.6	0.003**

**significant at 5 %; *significant at 10 %. Reported results are based on t-tests of means for continuous variables and chi-squares for proportions/categorical variables. All estimates are weighted to account for design effect and non-response

ISSN: 1472-6963