Imitation, Contagion, or Exertion? Using a Tax Reform to Reveal How Colleagues' Sick Leaves Influence Worker Behaviour

Abstract

We analyse social interaction effects in sick-leave behaviour at the workplace, using high-quality Norwegian matched employer-employee data with detailed individual information on sick leaves during the 2004 -2006 period. The analysis finds that social interaction effects on sick leaves in the workplace do exist, and the effects are noticeable in size. The strong relationship between the sick leave rates among colleagues is not solely due to contagious diseases, nor is it caused by improved informational quality or by the increased workload for the non-absent workers.Evidence supports the existence of reciprocal worker behaviour that is unrelated to joint leisureseeking activities.

Sick leave before, during and after pregnancy

“…An increasing number of studies have explored peer effects in relation to sickness absence (e.g. Dale-Olsen et al, 2010; Hesselius et al, 2009; Ichino and Maggi, 2000; Rieck and Vaage, 2012), and they tend to find that social interaction effects are present in the context of sick leave. If younger mothers are more prone to be absent (due to a number of reasons; for example, that they are more concerned during pregnancy and that being absent from work is considered beneficial for the child), changes in norms and absence cultures might work as an amplifier in increasing sick leave over time.…”

The Impact of Sickness Absenteeism on Firm Productivity: New Evidence from Belgian Matched Employer–Employee Panel Data

“…For example, they could consider investing more in information and communication technologies in the workplace, as those can significantly contribute to lowering occupational risks and injuries (Askenazy and Caroli 2010), or contribute to creating cooperative working environments, which have a substantial impact on employees' health conditions (Maclean et al 2015). Notably, given that sickness absenteeism unfolds with considerable social interaction dynamics, whereby the absence of a worker due to sickness influences other workers' absenteeism, it could be relatively easy for firms to reduce it in an effective way thanks to such multiplicative effects (Dale-Olsen, Østbakken, and Schøne 2015). In this light, firms' investments to ensure better health to their employees represent a win-win strategy.…”

Absence From Work, Sick Pay and Positional Consumption Concerns

“…In order to focus on relative income concerns and because the relevant empirical studies either indicate that income externalities are more important than leisure externalities (see Carlsson et al, 2007 andSolnick andHemenway, 2005) or do not provide a consistent picture (cf. Dale-Olsen et al, 2015;Hesselius et al, 2009Hesselius et al, , 2013Mujcic and Frijters, 2015), we normalize potential relative leisure, absence and health effects to zero. 4 Finally, 'Keeping up with the Joneses' (KUJ) preferences are characterized by a marginal rate of substitution between consumption and leisure, u 3 /u 1 , which increases with average consumption, c, whereas the opposite holds for 'Running away from the Joneses' (RAJ) preferences (see Abel, 1990;Dupor andLiu, 2003, andGal ı, 1994).…”