1) Health and absenteeism: Recent research has found the use of graded sick leave to reduce sick leave duration as well as strengthen subsequent labour force attachment. We will extend this literature by bringing forward more specific knowledge by letting the effect of sick leave occurrence (yes/no) and type (duration and grading) be made conditional on health. If successful, this may improve official guidelines for sick-leave prescription.
2) Disability across generations: Disability is strongly correlated across generations. This possibly puts a bound on the effect of current policies, as disability seem partly predetermined by social or biological inheritance. We will extend the large literature on intergenerational persistence in earnings and education by (i) carefully try to disentangle and quantify the causal mechanisms creating such correlation across generations, and (ii) evaluate policies which may break or weaken the intergenerational link.
3) The role of employers and workplaces: Arguably, the workplace is the most important arena for determining sickness absence. Yet, the mechanisms behind the variation in absenteeism between firms are not well understood. Using a rich and extensive employer-employee dataset we will search to understand why some firms have much higher sick leave rates than others. In particular we will investigate the role of selection/matching, workplace characteristics and leadership.
4) The gender gap in absenteeism: There is a substantial and partly unexplained gender gap in absenteeism. We will test whether this gap can be explained by caretaking for children, statistical discrimination or biological sex-differences in health or risk preferences.
Disentangling absence patterns
| Number | 4134 |
|---|---|
| Project manager | Simen Markussen |
| Client | Norges forskningsråd |
| Client project no. | 227103 |
| Participants | Bernt Bratsberg Sara Cools Elisabeth Fevang Simen Gaure Karen Evelyn Hauge Ingrid M.S. Huitfeldt Anja Grinde Myrann Knut Røed Ole Røgeberg Ragnhild Camilla Schreiner Marte Strøm Marte Eline Ulvestad Monique de Haan |
| Period | 1.11.2013 - 31.12.2017 |
Project description
This project will contribute to and partly extend the scientific literature on sickness absence. It is an extension, as well as a continuation, of ongoing research at the Frisch Centre using administrative data for Norway. The project will also finance a Phd-student. It has four topics:1) Health and absenteeism: Recent research has found the use of graded sick leave to reduce sick leave duration as well as strengthen subsequent labour force attachment. We will extend this literature by bringing forward more specific knowledge by letting the effect of sick leave occurrence (yes/no) and type (duration and grading) be made conditional on health. If successful, this may improve official guidelines for sick-leave prescription.
2) Disability across generations: Disability is strongly correlated across generations. This possibly puts a bound on the effect of current policies, as disability seem partly predetermined by social or biological inheritance. We will extend the large literature on intergenerational persistence in earnings and education by (i) carefully try to disentangle and quantify the causal mechanisms creating such correlation across generations, and (ii) evaluate policies which may break or weaken the intergenerational link.
3) The role of employers and workplaces: Arguably, the workplace is the most important arena for determining sickness absence. Yet, the mechanisms behind the variation in absenteeism between firms are not well understood. Using a rich and extensive employer-employee dataset we will search to understand why some firms have much higher sick leave rates than others. In particular we will investigate the role of selection/matching, workplace characteristics and leadership.
4) The gender gap in absenteeism: There is a substantial and partly unexplained gender gap in absenteeism. We will test whether this gap can be explained by caretaking for children, statistical discrimination or biological sex-differences in health or risk preferences.
Publications
Scientific Journal
Memorandum
This series is published by the Department of Economics, University of Oslo, in cooperation with the Frisch Centre. The list below only contains those memoranda written in connection with projects at the Frisch Centre. A complete list of memoranda is found at http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-7118
| Author(s): | Title: | Year: | Reference: | Link: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markussen, Simen og Marte Strøm | The effects of motherhood | 2015 | No. 19 | [PDF] |
Other journals
| Author(s): | Title: | Year: | Reference: | Link: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fevang, Elisabeth | Helserelaterte ytelser og skjult arbeidsledighet – en diskusjon om mulige sammenhenger | 2020 | Søkelys på arbeidslivet Vol 37(3), 201-215 | [PDF] [DOI] |
| Markussen, Simen og Knut Røed | En ny og smartere sykelønnsordning? | 2018 | Samfunnsøkonomen Nr 1, 13-22 | [PDF] |
| Markussen, Simen, Marte E. Ulvestad, Oddbjørn Raaum, Karen E. Hauge | Kan kjønnsforskjellen i sykefravær forklares av holdninger, normer og preferanser? | 2015 | Søkelys på arbeidslivet Årgang 32 Nr 4 2015 s298 | [PDF] |
| Markussen, Simen, Marte Strøm, Sara Cools | Menns og kvinners sykefravær: Hvilken rolle spiller antall barn? | 2015 | Søkelys på arbeidslivet Nr 4, 325-343 | [PDF] |
Other publications
| Author(s): | Title: | Year: | Reference: | Link: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fevang, Elisabeth | Economic Incentives, Employment and Health | 2019 | Doktorgradsavhandling, Universitetet i Bergen. | [PDF] |
