Perceived job security and sickness absence: a study on moral hazard

Abstract

A moral hazard problem was investigated by analysing the individual behaviour of female and male employees with regard to utilisation of sickness insurance in connection with perceived job security. It was hypothesised that employees with a higher perceived job security take more frequent sickness absence. Perceived higher job security is indicated by three variables, namely a permanent job contract, no unemployment history, and native ethnicity. The effect of perceived job security is expected to be stronger on short-term than on long-term sickness absence, since a medical certificate is required for the latter. Public health survey data from Stockholm County, Sweden, covering the year 2002 was used. Using logistic regression analyses separately for short- and long-term sickness absence and for females and males, we found that short-term sickness absence is more strongly influenced by perceived job security than long-term sickness absence. We observe indications of moral hazard in both female and male employees. However, the three indicators of perceived job security have a different influence on females and males.

Does drinking affect long-term sickness absence? A sample selection approach correcting for employment and accounting for drinking history

“…One reason for this might be the strong legal protection towards unreasonable dismissal (which dismissal due to sick leave is considered to be) and the strong positions of the unions. However, this result was not unexpected based on prior studies showing that the effect of unemployment on sickness absence mainly targets short-term absence (Khan and Rehnberg, 2009). In addition, women's long-term absence has been shown in a Swedish study not to be affected by unemployment rates (Knutsson and Goine, 1998).…”

“…It has indeed been shown that perceived job security affects sickness absence in Sweden, although this mostly affects short-term absence. Interestingly, there is only a weak effect on long-term absence (measured as longer than 7 days) (Khan and Rehnberg, 2009 (2007) shown that a change in the Swedish labour legislation in 2001 that reduced the job security of employees affected short-term much stronger than long-term absence. This is also connected to the issue of moral hazard which is expected to be more related to short-term than long-term absence as a medical certificate is required after the first 7 days.…”

Sickness absence among young employees: trends from 2002 to 2013

“…Of the 30−34 and 35−54 year olds, 63−70% and 74−85%, respectively, had permanent contracts. According to the results of a Swedish study, women with nonpermanent contracts had significantly lower numbers of short and long SAs than permanent employees, but permanence did not affect SAs among men 26) . We were unable to investigate the effect of job permanence on SAs because of the small numbers of permanent employees in the younger age groups.…”

Trends in long‐term sickness absence in Sweden 1992–2008: the role of economic conditions, legislation, demography, work environment and alcohol consumption

“…This disparity might be related to the fact that long‐term sickness absence differs from overall sickness absence. In short, compared with short‐term sick leave, long‐term sickness absence is likely to be more closely connected with illness and disease (Khan & Rehnberg, 2009; Kivimäki et al., 2003), and is therefore less likely to be more extensively affected by changes in regulations concerning aspects such as compensation levels and marginal adjustments to eligibility rules.…”