Short-Term Absenteeism Due to Sickness: The Swedish Experience, 1986-1991
Göteborg University Working Paper No. 46
44 Pages Posted: 29 Jun 2004
Date Written: May 2001
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to analyze short term-absences from work (i.e., periods of seven days or less) in Sweden during a period with two different reforms. As a theoretical model, we use a utility-maximization framework with two restrictions (time and budget constraints). Using multiple spell data, short-term absenteeism is analyzed for a period with three regimes, and it is found that the 1991 reform (which lowered the replacement rate) had a stronger effect on the hazard of ending short-term absenteeism than did the 1987 reform (which eliminated the previous unpaid inwaiting dayli, while restricting the remuneration to only those days when people were scheduled to work). Even though economic incentives mattered, people with poorer health did not ioshortenlo their absences in the same extent as those with better health.
Keywords: Short-term absenteeism sickness spells, repeated events, unobserved heterogeneity
JEL Classification: I18, J22, J32, J33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation