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Social Interactions At The Workplace: Exploring Sickness Absence Behavior

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Abstract

We investigate whether a worker’s sickness absence is affected by her colleagues’ absences from the workplace. The analysis is based on unique matched employer-employee data for Norwegian schoolteachers for the period 2001 to 2006 with information on different types of absences and multiple teacher and school characteristics. Using different approaches where methodological problems such as the reflection problem and intra-group correlation are mitigated, we look for evidence of social interaction effects. Our results show that the significance of the social interaction effects critically depends on our ability to control for unobserved school characteristics.

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  • Rieck, Karsten Marshall Elseth & Vaage, Kjell, 2012. "Social Interactions At The Workplace: Exploring Sickness Absence Behavior," Working Papers in Economics 11/12, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:bergec:2012_011
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    Cited by:

    1. Aline Bütikofer & Meghan M. Skira, 2018. "Missing Work Is a Pain: The Effect of Cox-2 Inhibitors on Sickness Absence and Disability Pension Receipt," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 53(1), pages 71-122.
    2. Karsten Marshall Elseth Rieck & Kjetil Telle, 2012. "Sick leave before, during and after pregnancy," Discussion Papers 690, Statistics Norway, Research Department.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social interaction; peer effects; sickness absence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C31 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions; Social Interaction Models
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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