Hampton, 1993

The Effect of Education
on Participation in Flexible Spending Accounts

Vickie L. Hampton ¹,
Karrol A. Kitt², Sue A. Greninger³ and Thomas M.
Bohman⁴

In order to better understand
employee benefit decisions, this research identified factors associated
with the decision to participate in a flexible spending account for medical
expense reimbursement. Participation was positively related to income and
to education. A logistic regression of the likelihood of participation
on family income and education showed that participation increased with
income, but at all income levels, participation increased with education.
The independent effect of education suggests the need to more clearly communicate
the benefits of such programs to those with less education.

Key Words: Flexible spending accounts, Fringe benefits, Reimbursement
accounts, Education

1. Vickie L. Hampton, Department of Human Ecology, The University
of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712. {Current E-mail:
vhampton@hs.ttu.edu.}

2. Karol A. Kitt, Associate Professor, Department
of Human Ecology, The University of Texas at Austin.  E-mail: kkitt@mail.utexas.edu

3. Sue A. Greninger, Associate Professor, Department
of Human Ecology, The University of Texas at Austin.  E-mail: sgreninger@mail.utexas.edu

4. Thomas M. Bohman, Ph.D. Candidate, Research Assistant,
Department of Human Ecology, The University of Texas at Austin.