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This study estimates the effect of parenthood on the within-couple gender gap in paid sick leave. We find that as a result of parenthood, mothers more than double their sick leave compared with fathers. However, there is no corresponding effect on health measured by hospital stays. We also find that mothers' income trajectory is strongly related to the magnitude of the effect: A less favorable income trajectory is associated with a larger effect of parenthood on the sick leave gap. Since mothers' labor supply is measured 1 year prior to sick leave, this result suggests that the lower labor supply induces an increase in sick leave rather than the other way round. Keywords Sick leave • Parenthood • Double burden • Health investment • Moral hazard JEL Classification C23 • D13 • I19 • J22 We are grateful for comments during seminars at the IFAU and UCLS, as well as from participants at the Workshop on Absenteeism and Social Insurance (Utrecht, September 2011) and the SOLE/EALE 2015 meetings in Montreal. Financial support from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, FORTE (dnr 2013-0209) is gratefully acknowledged.

Our main explanation for this discouraging result is that the team focuses too much on rehabilitation rather than encouraging the sick-listed individual to return to work.

No abstract

Mixed-aged (MA) classes are a common phenomenon around the world. In Sweden, these types of classes increased rapidly during the 1980s and 1990s, despite the fact that existing empirical support for MA classes is weak. In this paper, the effect of attending an MA class during grades 4-6 on students' cognitive skills is estimated. Using a unique survey with information on students, parents, and teachers, it is possible to control for many factors that could otherwise bias the results. A negative effect on short-run cognitive skills, as measured by grade 6 cognitive tests, was found. This effect is relatively large-almost 5 percentile points-and robust to a rigorous sensitivity analysis. On grade 9 credits the effect is still negative but smaller in size and not statistically significant.