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Workplace Health Promotion and Labour Market Performance of Employees

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  • Huber, Martin
  • Lechner, Michael
  • Wunsch, Conny

Abstract

This paper investigates the average effects of (firm-provided) workplace health promotion measures in form of the analysis of sickness absenteeism and health circles/courses on labour market outcomes of the firms’ employees. Exploiting linked employer-employee panel data that consist of rich survey-based and administrative information on firms, workers and regions, we apply a flexible propensity score matching approach that controls for selection on observables as well as on time-constant unobserved factors. While the effects of analysing sickness absenteeism appear to be rather limited, our results suggest that health circles/courses increase tenure and decrease the number of job changes across various age groups. A key finding is that health circles/courses strengthen the labour force attachment of elderly employees (51-60), implying potential cost savings for public transfer schemes such as unemployment or early retirement benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Huber, Martin & Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2014. "Workplace Health Promotion and Labour Market Performance of Employees," Economics Working Paper Series 1417, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:usg:econwp:2014:17
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Martin Biewen & Bernd Fitzenberger & Aderonke Osikominu & Marie Paul, 2014. "The Effectiveness of Public-Sponsored Training Revisited: The Importance of Data and Methodological Choices," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(4), pages 837-897.
    2. Martin Huber & Michael Lechner & Conny Wunsch, 2011. "Does leaving welfare improve health? Evidence for Germany," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 484-504, April.
    3. Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2013. "Sensitivity of matching-based program evaluations to the availability of control variables," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 111-121.
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    5. Conny Wunsch & Michael Lechner, 2008. "What Did All the Money Do? On the General Ineffectiveness of Recent West German Labour Market Programmes," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 134-174, February.
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    7. Conny Wunsch, 2013. "Optimal Use of Labor Market Policies: The Role of Job Search Assistance," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(3), pages 1030-1045, July.
    8. Petri Böckerman & Pekka Ilmakunnas, 2009. "Unemployment and self‐assessed health: evidence from panel data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(2), pages 161-179, February.
    9. Huber, Martin & Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2013. "The performance of estimators based on the propensity score," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 175(1), pages 1-21.
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    14. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 2002. "Propensity Score-Matching Methods For Nonexperimental Causal Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 151-161, February.
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    16. Joffe, Marshall M. & Ten Have, Thomas R. & Feldman, Harold I. & Kimmel, Stephen E., 2004. "Model Selection, Confounder Control, and Marginal Structural Models: Review and New Applications," The American Statistician, American Statistical Association, vol. 58, pages 272-279, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Doerr, Annabelle, 2022. "Vocational training for female job returners - Effects on employment, earnings and job quality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    2. Marwah Badr Zaya Yousif & Taicir Moalla Loukil, 2022. "Determining the Effect of Narcissistic Leadership on Employee Performance: An applied Study in a Private College in Iraq," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 11, September.
    3. Ong, Rachel & Nguyen, Toan & Kendall, Garth, 2018. "The impact of intergenerational financial transfers on health and wellbeing outcomes: A longitudinal study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 179-186.
    4. Aizawa, Toshiaki & Okudaira, Hiroko & Kitagawa, Ritsu & Kuroda, Sachiko & Owan, Hideo, 2024. "Employee well-being in the digital age: Assessing the impacts of a smartphone application in the workplace," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    5. Doerr, Annabelle, 2022. "Vocational Training for Female Job Returners - Effects on Employment, Earnings and Job Quality," Working papers 2022/02, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    6. Broszeit, Sandra & Laible, Marie-Christine, 2017. "Examining the link between health measures, management practices and establishment performance," IAB-Discussion Paper 201726, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    7. Yakymovych, Yaroslav, 2024. "Medical certificates and sickness absence: who stays away from work if monitoring is relaxed?," Working Paper Series 2024:19, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Firm health policies; health circles; health courses; analysis of sickness absenteeism; matching;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions

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