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Sick Leaves: Understanding Disparities Between French Departments

Author

Listed:
  • Mohamed Ali Ben Halima

    (IRDES Institute for research and information in health economics)

  • Thierry Debrand

    (IRDES Institute for research and information in health economics)

  • Camille Regaert

    (IRDES Institute for research and information in health economics)

Abstract

The purpose of this publication is to better understand disparities between the proportions of sick leaves granted among various departments in France. The Hygie database was used for this study. It was created by merging a number of administrative files of employees in the private sector in France in 2005. This database allows for the determination of «employer/employee» relations, the impact of the characteristics of firms on the health of their employees and the interactions between health and work. After briefly reviewing the various determinants for the effect of composition and the effect of context, as well as sick leaves and their importance for understanding geographic differences, we present a three-phase empirical analysis: a descriptive analysis to detect differences between departments, a multivariate analysis to highlight explanatory factors of probability of being on sick leave and, finally, an analysis of determinants of differences between departments. Our different models explain a significant portion of the disparities between departments. The effects of composition and effects of context account for approximately two-thirds of the mean squared error. The variables describing the medical supply (density of general practitioners), monitoring by National Health Insurance and patient age when the professional career began best explain the disparities between departments concerning sick leave. In contrast to other compositions or contexts included in our model, the percentage of sick leaves verified and the density of general practitioners are important factors with respect to health policies. Our research shows that they could be used as public policy instruments aimed at reducing geographic disparities.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohamed Ali Ben Halima & Thierry Debrand & Camille Regaert, 2012. "Sick Leaves: Understanding Disparities Between French Departments," Working Papers DT50, IRDES institut for research and information in health economics, revised Oct 2012.
  • Handle: RePEc:irh:wpaper:dt50
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Thomas Barnay & Sandrine Juin & Renaud Legal, 2013. "Les disparités de prise d’arrêts maladie entre secteurs d’activité en France : une analyse longitudinale sur données administratives," Erudite Working Paper 2013-06, Erudite.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sick leave; Geographic disparities; Effect of context; Effect of composition; Absenteeism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J29 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Other
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities

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