IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v54y2019i1p200-224.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Keeping the Production Line Running: Internal Substitution and Employee Absence

Author

Listed:
  • Lena Hensvik
  • Olof Rosenqvist

Abstract

We postulate that the production losses from absence depend on firms’ ability to internally substitute for absent workers, incentivizing firms to keep absence low in jobs with few substitutes. Using Swedish employer–employee data we show that absence is substantially lower in such positions conditional on establishment and occupation fixed effects. The result is driven by employee adjustments of absence to substitutability, and sorting of low (high) absence workers into (out of) positions with few substitutes. These findings highlight that internal substitution insures firms against production disruptions and that absence costs are important aspects of firms’ hiring and separation decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Lena Hensvik & Olof Rosenqvist, 2019. "Keeping the Production Line Running: Internal Substitution and Employee Absence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(1), pages 200-224.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:54:y:2019:i:1:p:200-224
    Note: DOI: 10.3368/jhr.54.1.0516.7914R11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/200
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rita Ginja & Arizo Karimi & Pengpeng Xiao, 2023. "Employer Responses to Family Leave Programs," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 107-135, January.
    2. Schmutte, Ian M. & Skira, Meghan M., 2020. "The Response of Firms to Maternity Leave and Sickness Absence," GLO Discussion Paper Series 691, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Azmat, Ghazala & Hensvik, Lena & Rosenqvist, Olof, 2020. "Workplace presenteeism, job substitutability and gender inequality," Working Paper Series 2020:9, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    4. Huebener, Mathias & Jessen, Jonas & Kühnle, Daniel & Oberfichtner, Michael, 2021. "A Firm-Side Perspective on Parental Leave," IZA Discussion Papers 14478, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Pablo Blanchard & Gabriel Burdín & Andrés Dean, 2023. "Property Rights and Effort Supply," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 23-01, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    6. Ghazala Azmat & Lena Hensvik & Olof Rosenqvist, 2021. "Workplace Presenteeism, Job Substitutability and Gender Inequality," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03812822, HAL.
    7. Hall, Caroline & Liljeberg, Linus & Lindahl, Erica, 2024. "Firm responses to a more generous insurance against high sick pay costs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Ghazala Azmat & Lena Hensvik & Olof Rosenqvist, 2021. "Workplace Presenteeism, Job Substitutability and Gender Inequality," Working Papers hal-03812822, HAL.
    9. Mathias Huebener & Jonas Jessen & Daniel Kuehnle & Michael Oberfichtner, 2022. "Parental Leave, Worker Substitutability, and Firms' Employment," Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers 0007, Berlin School of Economics.
    10. Ghazala Azmat & Lena Hensvik & Olof Rosenqvist, 2021. "Workplace Presenteeism, Job Substitutability and Gender Inequality," SciencePo Working papers hal-03812822, HAL.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:54:y:2019:i:1:p:200-224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.