If Sick-Leave Becomes More Costly, Will I Go Back to Work? Could it Be Too Soon?

47 Pages Posted: 22 Jun 2020 Last revised: 29 Oct 2024

See all articles by Olivier Marie

Olivier Marie

London School of Economics - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)

Judit Vall Castelló

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) - Center for Research in Health and Economics (CRES)

Abstract

We investigate the impact on work absence of a massive reduction in paid sick leave benefits. We exploit a policy change that only affected public sector workers in Spain and compare changes in the number and length of spells they take relative to unaffected private sector workers. Our results highlight a large drop in frequency mostly offset by increases in average duration. Overall, the policy did reduce number of days lost to sick leave. For some, however, return to work may have been premature as we document huge increases in both the proportion of relapses and working accidents rates.

Keywords: benefit displacement, relapses contagious diseases, presenteeism, absenteeism, paid sick leave, sickness insurance, working accidents, negative externalities, Spain, COVID-19

JEL Classification: I12, I13, I18, J22, J28, J32

Suggested Citation

Marie, Olivier and Castelló, Judit Vall, If Sick-Leave Becomes More Costly, Will I Go Back to Work? Could it Be Too Soon?. IZA Discussion Paper No. 13379, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3631589

Olivier Marie (Contact Author)

London School of Economics - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Judit Vall Castelló

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) - Center for Research in Health and Economics (CRES) ( email )

Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27
Barcelona, 08005
Spain

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
28
Abstract Views
440
PlumX Metrics