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Sickness and injury leave in France: moral hazard or strain?

Author

Listed:
  • Michel Grignon

    (Departments of Economics and Health, Aging and Society, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario)

  • Thomas Renaud

    (IRDES Institute for research and information in health economics)

Abstract

From 1997 to 2001, the total payment to compensate for sickness and injury leaves increased dramatically in France. Since this change coincided with a decrease in unemployment rate,three hypothesizes should be proposed as possible explanations consistently with the literature: moral hazard (workers fear less to loose their job, therefore use sickness leave more confidently); strain (workers work longer hours or under more stringent rules); labor-force composition effect (less healthy individuals are incorporated into the labor force). We investigate the first two strands of explanation using a household survey (ESPS) enriched with claims data from compulsory health insurance funds on sickness leaves (EPAS). We model separately number of leaves per individual (cumulative logit) and duration of leaves (random-effect model). According to our findings, in France, the individual propensity to take sickness leave is mainly influenced by strain in the workplace and by a labor-force composition effect. Conditional duration of spells is not well explained at the individual level: the only significant factor is usual weekly work duration. Influence of moral hazard is not clearly ascertained: it has few impact on occurrences of leave and no impact on duration.

Suggested Citation

  • Michel Grignon & Thomas Renaud, 2007. "Sickness and injury leave in France: moral hazard or strain?," Working Papers DT4, IRDES institut for research and information in health economics, revised Feb 2007.
    • Handle: RePEc:irh:wpaper:dt4
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    File URL: https://www.irdes.fr/EspaceAnglais/Publications/WorkingPapers/DT4SicknessInjury.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2007
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Cédric Afsa & Pauline Givord, 2014. "The impact of working conditions on sickness absence: a theoretical model and an empirical application to work schedules," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 285-305, February.
    2. Ben Halima Mohamed Ali & Regaert Camille, 2013. "Duration of Sick Leave, Income and Health Insurance: Evidence from French French linked employer-employee data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(1), pages 46-55.
    3. Nathalie Havet & Morgane Plantier, 2023. "The links between difficult working conditions and sickness absences in the case of French workers," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 37(1), pages 160-195, March.
    4. Cédric Afsa & Pauline Givord, 2009. "Le rôle des conditions de travail dans les absences pour maladie : le cas des horaires irréguliers," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 187(1), pages 83-103.
    5. Mohamed Ali Ben Halima & Thierry Debrand & Camille Regaert, 2011. "Arrêts maladie : comprendre les disparités départementales," Working Papers DT39, IRDES institut for research and information in health economics, revised Feb 2011.
    6. 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.
    7. Mohamed Ali Ben Halima & Thierry Debrand, 2011. "Durée d’arrêt de travail, salaire et Assurance maladie : application microéconométrique à partir de la base Hygie," Working Papers DT42, IRDES institut for research and information in health economics, revised Sep 2011.
    8. Sabine Chaupain-Guillot & Olivier Guillot, 2010. "Les déterminants individuels des absences au travail : une comparaison européenne," Working Papers of BETA 2010-17, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sickness; Labour Force;

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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