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Absenteeism In The Italian Public Sector: The Effects Of Changes In Sick Leave Compensation

Author

Listed:
  • Maria De Paola
  • Valeria Pupo
  • Vincenzo Scoppa

    (Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica, Università della Calabria)

Abstract

In this paper we analyse how the absence behaviour of Italian public sector employees has been affected by a law, passed in June 2008, reducing sick leave compensation and increasing monitoring intensity. We use micro-data on a sample of about 860 workers, employed at an Italian public administration, for years going from 2005 to 2009. We estimate the effect of the reform using linear and non-linear estimators. As predicted by agency theory, individuals react to economic incentives: the employees in our sample have considerably reduced their absences under the new regime. Since the reform has affected employees in a non uniform way, we show that the reduction of absenteeism is significantly stronger for employees suffering higher earning losses. Results also show that while the reform has reduced the duration of short absence spells, the duration of long spells has increased. We argue that this is due to the non-linearity of earning losses introduced by the new law.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria De Paola & Valeria Pupo & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2009. "Absenteeism In The Italian Public Sector: The Effects Of Changes In Sick Leave Compensation," Working Papers 200916, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.
  • Handle: RePEc:clb:wpaper:200916
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    File URL: http://www.ecostat.unical.it/RePEc/WorkingPapers/WP16_2009.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. De Paola, Maria, 2010. "Absenteeism and peer interaction effects: Evidence from an Italian Public Institute," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 420-428, June.
    3. Joshua D. Angrist & Erich Battistin & Daniela Vuri, 2014. "In a Small Moment: Class Size and Moral Hazard in the Mezzogiorno," FBK-IRVAPP Working Papers 2014-04, Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (IRVAPP), Bruno Kessler Foundation.
    4. Filip Pertold, 2015. "What if they take it all? Impact of zero replacement rates on sickness absence," Discussion Papers 35, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).
    5. Alessandra Del Boca & Maria Laura Parisi, 2010. "Why does the private sector react like the public to law 133? A microeconometric analysis of sickness absence in Italy," Working Papers 1008, University of Brescia, Department of Economics.
    6. Francesco D'Amuri, 2011. "Monetary incentives vs. monitoring in addressing absenteeism: experimental evidence," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 787, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    7. D'Amuri, Francesco, 2011. "Monitoring and monetary incentives in addressing absenteeism: evidence from a sequence of policy changes," ISER Working Paper Series 2011-10, Institute for Social and Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Worker Absenteeism; Moral Hazard; Shirking; Sickness; Insurance Contracts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • C20 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - General

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