Unemployment, labor force composition and sickness absence: a panel data study

Abstract

Sickness absence tends to be negatively correlated with unemployment rates. In addition to pure health effects, this may be due to moral hazard behavior by workers who are fully insured against income loss during sickness and to physicians who meet demand for medical certificates. Alternatively, it may reflect changes in the composition of the labor force, with more sickness-prone workers entering the labor force in upturns. A panel of Norwegian register data is used to analyze long-term sickness absences. The unemployment rate is shown to be negatively associated with the probability of absence, and with the number of days of sick leave. Restricting the sample to workers who are present in the whole sample period, the negative relationship between absence and unemployment becomes clearer. This indicates that procyclical variations in sickness absence are caused by established workers and not by the composition of the labor force.

Interaction of Job Disamenities, Job Satisfaction, and Sickness Absences: Evidence from a Representative Sample of Finnish Workers

“…A similar cyclical pattern has been discovered in a number of other countries (e.g. Arai and Thoursie, 2005;Askildsen et al, 2005;Boone and Van Ours, 2006).…”

A natural experiment on sick pay cuts, sickness absence, and labor costs

“…This finding is reinforced by various other empirical studies which analyze further determinants of sickness absence behavior. Workplace conditions are relevant, (Dionne and Dostie, 2007) as are probation periods and economic upswings or downturns (Ichino and Riphahn, 2005;Askildsen et al, 2005).…”

De helserelaterte trygdeytelsene - Betydningen av økonomiske insentiver og samspill mellom trygdeordninger

“…Askildsen, Bratberg og Nilsen (2005) viser at prosyklisk variasjon i sykefravaer over konjunktursyklusene på 1980-og 90-tallet først og fremst er drevet av endringer i sykefravaeret til arbeidstakere som har vaert sysselsatte gjennom hele perioden, og ikke av den «marginale» arbeidskraften som gikk inn og ut av arbeidsstyrken i takt med konjunkturene. Arai og Thoursie (2005) finner en negativ (pro-syklisk) korrelasjon mellom sykefravaer og omfanget av midlertidige kontrakter i ulike naeringer og regioner i det svenske arbeidsmarkedet.…”