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The effects of expanding the generosity of the statutory sickness insurance system

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  • Ziebarth N
  • Karlsson M

Abstract

In 1999, in Germany, the statutory sick pay level was increased from 80 to 100 percent of foregone earnings for sickness episodes of up to six weeks. We show that this reform has led to an increase in average absence days of about 10 percent or one additional day per employee, per year. The estimates are based on SOEP survey data and parametric, nonparametric, and combined matching-regression difference-in-differences methods. Extended calculations suggest that the reform might have increased labor costs by about e1.8 billion per year and might have led to the loss of around 50,000 jobs.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York in its series Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers with number 09/35.

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Date of creation: Dec 2009
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Handle: RePEc:yor:hectdg:09/35

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Postal: HEDG/HERC, Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
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Web page: http://www.york.ac.uk/res/herc/research/hedg/
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Keywords: sickness absence; statutory sick pay; natural experiment; Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP);

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Cited by:
  1. Ziebarth N & Karlsson M, 2009. "A Natural Experiment on Sick Pay Cuts, Sickness Absence, and Labor Costs," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/34, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
  2. Schneider, Julia & Beblo, Miriam, 2010. "Health at work - indicators and determinants : a revised literature and data review for Germany," IAB Discussion Paper 201017, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
  3. Edmundo Beteta & Manuel Willington, 2009. "Planes Mínimos Obligatorios en Mercados de Seguros de Salud Segmentados," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 36(2 Year 20), pages 217-241, December.

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