Sick of Your Colleagues' Absence?

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. We utilize a large-scale randomized social experiment to identify how coworkers affect each other's effort as measured by work absence. The experiment altered the work absence incentives for half of all employees living in Göteborg, Sweden. Using administrative data we are able to recover the treatment status of all workers in more than 3,000 workplaces. We first document that employees in workplaces with a high proportion treated coworkers increase their own absence level significantly. We then examine the heterogeneity of the treatment effect in order to explore what mechanisms are underlying the peer effect. While a strong effect of having a high proportion of treated coworkers is found for the nontreated workers, no significant effects are found for the treated workers. These results suggest that pure altruistic social preferences can be ruled out as the main motivator for the behaviour of a nonnegligible proportion of the employees in our sample.JEL Classification: J24

An Overview of Social Networks and Economic Applications

“…Having controlled experiments can substantially narrow down the range of explanations for observed peer correlations. For example, Hesselius, Johansson, and Nilsson (2009) examine absences in the workplace based on a randomized rule affecting about 3000 workplaces in Göteborg Sweden. Randomly assigned agents were allowed to have longer spells of absence from work (14 days) without having to produce a doctor's certificate than was the rule for the general population (8 days).…”

Can sickness absence be affected by information meetings? Evidence from a social experiment

“…In a study based on an extensive experiment undertaken in 1988, Hesselius, Johansson and Nilsson (2009) show evidence of social interactions in the workplace; how co-workers affect each other's effort as measured by work absence.…”

Income inequality and health: Lessons from a refugee residential assignment program

“…Hesselius, Johansson and Nilsson 2009). Nevertheless, in order for an individual in Sweden to receive sick pay it is necessary to see a doctor on the seventh day of job absence.…”