IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v11y2002i3p221-231.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A general model of the impact of absenteeism on employers and employees

Author

Listed:
  • Mark V. Pauly
  • Sean Nicholson
  • Judy Xu
  • Dan Polsky
  • Patricia M. Danzon
  • James F. Murray
  • Marc L. Berger

Abstract

Most studies on the indirect costs of an illness and the cost effectiveness of a medical intervention or employer‐sponsored wellness program assume that the value of reducing the number of days employees miss from work due to illness is the wage rate. This paper presents a general model to examine the magnitude and incidence of costs associated with absenteeism under alternative assumptions regarding the size of the firm, the production function, the nature of the firm's product, and the competitiveness of the labor market. We conclude that the cost of lost work time can be substantially higher than the wage when perfect substitutes are not available to replace absent workers and there is team production or a penalty associated with not meeting an output target. In the long run, workers are likely to bear much of the incidence of the costs associated with absenteeism, and therefore be the likely beneficiaries of any reduction in absenteeism. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark V. Pauly & Sean Nicholson & Judy Xu & Dan Polsky & Patricia M. Danzon & James F. Murray & Marc L. Berger, 2002. "A general model of the impact of absenteeism on employers and employees," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(3), pages 221-231, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:11:y:2002:i:3:p:221-231
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.648
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.648
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.648?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Koopmanschap, Marc A. & Rutten, Frans F. H. & van Ineveld, B. Martin & van Roijen, Leona, 1995. "The friction cost method for measuring indirect costs of disease," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 171-189, June.
    2. Wendy J. Ungar & Peter C. Coyte & The Pharmacy Medication Monitoring Program Advisory Board, 2000. "Measuring productivity loss days in asthma patients," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(1), pages 37-46, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iris Arends & Ute Bültmann & Willem van Rhenen & Henk Groen & Jac J L van der Klink, 2013. "Economic Evaluation of a Problem Solving Intervention to Prevent Recurrent Sickness Absence in Workers with Common Mental Disorders," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(8), pages 1-1, August.
    2. Simon Wieser & Bruno Horisberger & Sara Schmidhauser & Claudia Eisenring & Urs Brügger & Andreas Ruckstuhl & Jürg Dietrich & Anne Mannion & Achim Elfering & Özgür Tamcan & Urs Müller, 2011. "Cost of low back pain in Switzerland in 2005," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 12(5), pages 455-467, October.
    3. Anne Tiainen & Clas Rehnberg, 2010. "The Economic Burden of Psychiatric Disorders in Sweden," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 56(5), pages 515-526, September.
    4. Chima, Reginald Ikechukwu & Goodman, Catherine A. & Mills, Anne, 2003. "The economic impact of malaria in Africa: a critical review of the evidence," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 17-36, January.
    5. Tilling, C & Krol, M & Tsuchiya, A & Brazier, J & van Exel, J & Brouwer, W, 2009. "The impact of losses in income due to ill health: does the EQ-5D reflect lost earnings?," MPRA Paper 29837, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Luis R Carrasco & Linda K Lee & Vernon J Lee & Eng Eong Ooi & Donald S Shepard & Tun L Thein & Victor Gan & Alex R Cook & David Lye & Lee Ching Ng & Yee Sin Leo, 2011. "Economic Impact of Dengue Illness and the Cost-Effectiveness of Future Vaccination Programs in Singapore," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(12), pages 1-9, December.
    7. Hoeijenbos, Margreet & Bekkering, Trudy & Lamers, Leida & Hendriks, Erik & van Tulder, Maurits & Koopmanschap, Marc, 2005. "Cost-effectiveness of an active implementation strategy for the Dutch physiotherapy guideline for low back pain," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 85-98, December.
    8. Beata Gavurova & Miriama Tarhanicova, 2021. "Methods for Estimating Avoidable Costs of Excessive Alcohol Consumption," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-25, May.
    9. Hanna Gyllensten & Michael Wiberg & Kristina Alexanderson & Anders Norlund & Emilie Friberg & Jan Hillert & Olivia Ernstsson & Petter Tinghög, 2018. "Costs of illness of multiple sclerosis in Sweden: a population-based register study of people of working age," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(3), pages 435-446, April.
    10. Pierre Kopp & Marysia Ogrodnik, 2017. "The social cost of drugs in France in 2010," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(7), pages 883-892, September.
    11. Johan Jarl & Pia Johansson & Antonina Eriksson & Mimmi Eriksson & Ulf-G. Gerdtham & Örjan Hemström & Klara Selin & Leif Lenke & Mats Ramstedt & Robin Room, 2008. "The societal cost of alcohol consumption: an estimation of the economic and human cost including health effects in Sweden, 2002," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 9(4), pages 351-360, November.
    12. Juan Oliva & Félix Lobo & Julio López-Bastida & Néboa Zozaya & Rosa Romay, 2005. "Indirect costs of cervical and breast cancers in Spain," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 6(4), pages 309-313, December.
    13. Koopmanschap, Marc A. & Rutten, Frans F. H. & van Ineveld, B. Martin & van Roijen, Leona, 1997. "Reply to Johanneson's and Karlsson's comment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 257-259, April.
    14. Brouwer, W. B. F. & Koopmanschap, M. A. & Rutten, F. F. H., 1999. "Productivity losses without absence: measurement validation and empirical evidence," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 13-27, July.
    15. Hanly, Paul & Ortega Ortega, Marta & Pearce, Alison & Soerjomataram, Isabelle & Sharp, Linda, 2020. "Advances in the methodological approach to friction period estimation: A European perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    16. Carmen Herrero & Juan D. Moreno‐Ternero, 2009. "Estimating production costs in the economic evaluation of health‐care programs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 21-35, January.
    17. Brouwer, W. B. F. & van Exel, N. J. A. & Koopmanschap, M. A. & Rutten, F. F. H., 2002. "Productivity costs before and after absence from work: as important as common?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 173-187, August.
    18. Geke Romijn & Neeltje Batelaan & Jeroen Koning & Anton van Balkom & Aart de Leeuw & Friederike Benning & Leona Hakkaart van Roijen & Heleen Riper, 2021. "Acceptability, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of blended cognitive-behavioural therapy (bCBT) versus face-to-face CBT (ftfCBT) for anxiety disorders in specialised mental health care: A 15-week ," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-20, November.
    19. Siri Fauli & Geir Thue, 2008. "Economic consequences of near-patient test results: the case of tests for the Helicobacter Pylori bacterium in dyspepsia," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 9(3), pages 221-228, August.
    20. Werner Brouwer & Samare Huls & Ayesha Sajjad & Tim Kanters & Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen & Job Exel, 2022. "In Absence of Absenteeism: Some Thoughts on Productivity Costs in Economic Evaluations in a Post-corona Era," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 7-11, January.

    More about this item

    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:wly:hlthec:v:11:y:2002:i:3:p:221-231. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    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.