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Absenteeism, Health Insurance, and Business Cycles

Link to article:

[PDF]

Authors:

Nordberg, Morten and Knut Røed

Year:

2003

Reference:

HERO Skrifter
Number in series: 17

Summary

We use a dependent competing risks hazard rate model to investigate individual sickness absence behaviour in Norway, on the basis of register data covering more than 2 million absence spells. Our findings are: i) that business cycle improvements yield lower work-resumption rates for persons who are absent, and higher relapse rates for persons who have already resumed work; ii) that absence sometimes represents a health investment, in the sense that longer absence ‘now’ reduces the subsequent relapse propensity; and iii) that the work-resumption rate increases when sickness benefits are exhausted, but that work-resumptions at this point tend to be short-lived.

JEL:

J22, C41

Keywords:

Absenteeism, Dependent risks

Project:

Oppdragsgiver: HERO
Oppdragsgivers prosjektnr.:
Frisch prosjekt: 4102 - Absenteeism and medical diagnosis

ISBN:

82-7756-123-7

Contact:

knut.roed@frisch.uio.no

Financing:

Norwegian Ministry of Labour and GovernmentAdministration and the Health Economics Research Program at the University of Oslo.