Sick Leave Cuts and (Unhealthy) Returns to Work

We investigate the impact on work absences of a large reduction in paid sick leave benefits in Spain. Our results highlight substantial decreases in frequency (number of spells) mostly offset by increases in duration (length of spells). Overall, the policy did reduce the number of days lost to sick...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Marie, Olivier, Vall Castelló, Judit
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/207335
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/207335
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Absentisme laboral
Baixa mèdica
Absenteeism (Labor)
Sick leave
Descrição
Resumo:We investigate the impact on work absences of a large reduction in paid sick leave benefits in Spain. Our results highlight substantial decreases in frequency (number of spells) mostly offset by increases in duration (length of spells). Overall, the policy did reduce the number of days lost to sick leave. For some, however, return to work was premature, as we document large increases in both the proportion of relapses and the number of working accidents. Displacement toward this unaffected benefit scheme cancels out almost two-fifths of the gains in terms of estimated absence reductions from the sick leave benefit cut.