IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18121.html

No Payoff from Time Off? Mandated Paid Vacation and Late-Career Employment

Author

Listed:
  • Bensnes, Simon

    (Statistics Norway)

  • Hernaes, Øystein

    (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research)

  • King, Max-Emil M.

    (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research)

Abstract

This study examines the impact of receiving one additional week of paid vacation on labor market attachment among Norwegian workers aged 60+. Employing a triple-differences estimation strategy, we exploit age-based eligibility thresholds before and after a 2009 reform to identify causal effects. Our findings indicate that the extra leave has negligible effects on both employment, sickness absence and disability benefit receipt in the year workers first receive it. If anything, some workers use the additional vacation time to increase earnings from secondary employers. The results imply that policymakers should consider alternative measures to mandated leave to support an aging workforce.

Suggested Citation

  • Bensnes, Simon & Hernaes, Øystein & King, Max-Emil M., 2025. "No Payoff from Time Off? Mandated Paid Vacation and Late-Career Employment," IZA Discussion Papers 18121, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18121
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18121.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Keith Chen & Judith A. Chevalier & Peter E. Rossi & Emily Oehlsen, 2019. "The Value of Flexible Work: Evidence from Uber Drivers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(6), pages 2735-2794.
    2. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin & Karel Mertens, 2023. "Work from Home before and after the COVID-19 Outbreak," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 1-39, October.
    3. Lea Cassar & Stephan Meier, 2018. "Nonmonetary Incentives and the Implications of Work as a Source of Meaning," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 215-238, Summer.
    4. Nicholas Bloom & James Liang & John Roberts & Zhichun Jenny Ying, 2015. "Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(1), pages 165-218.
    5. Alexandre Mas & Amanda Pallais, 2017. "Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3722-3759, December.
    6. Thomas Hofmarcher, 2021. "The effect of paid vacation on health: evidence from Sweden," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 929-967, July.
    7. Haoran He & David Neumark & Qian Weng, 2021. "Do Workers Value Flexible Jobs? A Field Experiment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(3), pages 709-738.
    8. Natalia Emanuel & Emma Harrington, 2024. "Working Remotely? Selection, Treatment, and the Market for Remote Work," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 528-559, October.
    9. Jason Sockin, 2022. "Show Me the Amenity: Are Higher-Paying Firms Better All Around?," CESifo Working Paper Series 9842, CESifo.
    10. Mark Hayward & William Grady & Melissa Hardy & David Sommers, 1989. "Occupational influences on retirement, disability, and death," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 26(3), pages 393-409, August.
    11. Nicole Maestas & Kathleen J. Mullen & David Powell & Till von Wachter & Jeffrey B. Wenger, 2023. "The Value of Working Conditions in the United States and the Implications for the Structure of Wages," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(7), pages 2007-2047, July.
    12. Filer, Randall K & Petri, Peter A, 1988. "A Job-Characteristics Theory of Retirement," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(1), pages 123-129, February.
    13. Nicholas Bloom & Ruobing Han & James Liang, 2024. "Hybrid working from home improves retention without damaging performance," Nature, Nature, vol. 630(8018), pages 920-925, June.
    14. Marta Angelici & Paola Profeta, 2024. "Smart Working: Work Flexibility Without Constraints," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(3), pages 1680-1705, March.
    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. Piotr Lewandowski & Katarzyna Lipowska & Mateusz Smoter, 2026. "Mismatch in Preferences for Working from Home: Evidence from Discrete Choice Experiments with Workers and Employers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 79(1), pages 142-172, January.
    2. Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Victoria Vernon, 2025. "Remote work, wages, and hours worked in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 1-49, March.
    3. Feuillade, Mylène & Goux, Dominique & Maurin, Eric, 2025. "Rise in Home Working and Spousal Labor Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 17997, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Victoria Vernon, 2022. "Telework, Wages, and Time Use in the United States," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 687-734, September.
    5. Achard, Pascal & Belot, Michèle & Chevalier, Arnaud, 2025. "When Parents Work from Home," IZA Discussion Papers 17957, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Guillaume Gueguen & Claudia Senik, 2023. "Adopting telework: The causal impact of working from home on subjective well‐being," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(4), pages 832-868, December.
    7. Markus Nagler & Johannes Rincke & Erwin Winkler, 2022. "How Much Do Workers Actually Value Working from Home?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10073, CESifo.
    8. Aum, Sangmin & Kim, Bongseop & Lee, Jungmin, 2025. "Why do you like or dislike your job?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    9. Marie Boltz & Bart Cockx & Ana Maria Diaz & Luz Magdalena Salas, 2023. "How does working‐time flexibility affect workers' productivity in a routine job? Evidence from a field experiment," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 159-187, March.
    10. Christos A. Makridis, 2025. "The Allocation of Time and Remote Work," CESifo Working Paper Series 12363, CESifo.
    11. Kuan-Ming Chen & Ning Ding & John A List & Magne Mogstad, 2025. "Reservation Wages and Workers’ Valuation of Job Flexibility: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 23(6), pages 2165-2211.
    12. Hirte, Georg & Laes, Renée & Gerike, Regine, 2023. "Working from self-driving cars," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    13. Clemens, Jeffrey, 2019. "Making Sense of the Minimum Wage: A Roadmap for Navigating Recent Research," MPRA Paper 94324, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Gavoille, Nicolas & Hazans, Mihails, 2022. "Personality Traits, Remote Work and Productivity," IZA Discussion Papers 15486, IZA Network @ LISER.
    15. Benjamin W. Arold & Elliott Ash & W. Bentley MacLeod & Suresh Naidu, 2025. "Worker Rights in Collective Bargaining," CESifo Working Paper Series 11766, CESifo.
    16. Arntz, Melanie & Ben Yahmed, Sarra & Berlingieri, Francesco, 2022. "Working from home, hours worked and wages: Heterogeneity by gender and parenthood," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    17. Hirte, Georg & Laes, Renée, 2022. "Working from self-driving cars," CEPIE Working Papers 01/22, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    18. Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Kathryn Bonney & Cory Breaux & Catherine Buffington & Steven J. Davis & Lucia Foster & Brian McKenzie & Keith Savage & Cristina Tello-Trillo, 2025. "Tapping Business and Household Surveys to Sharpen Our View of Work from Home," NBER Chapters, in: The Changing Nature of Work, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2022. "Work that can be done from home: evidence on variation within and across occupations and industries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    20. Cevat Giray Aksoy & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Victoria Marino & Cem Ozguzel, 2025. "Remote Work, Employee Mix, and Performance," NBER Working Papers 33851, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H8 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp18121. 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    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.