Absenteeism - Disability, Norms and Interventions

Project managerOle Røgeberg
ClientNorges forskningsråd
Client project no.201416
ParticipantsDaniel Bergsvik
Bernt Bratsberg
Elisabeth Fevang
Ingrid M.S. Huitfeldt
Simen Markussen
Oddbjørn Raaum
Knut Røed
Ragnhild Camilla Schreiner
Period2010 - 2014 (ended)

Project description

The project aims to contribute to three questions:

1.How much and how does the "fastlege"/General Practitioner (GP) affect the risk of disability and exclusion from the labor market? How can we disentangle the impact of the GP from individual, workplace, family and other factors? Are estimated associations causal? How much do sorting and se lection mechanisms matter? And what differing GP attitudes and judgments drive observed differences in GP outcomes?

2.Are norms and attitudes towards sick-leave and disability pension changing?
(i) Do younger generations possess more "lenient" attitudes towards the use of sick-leave for non-medical reasons? Technically, what are cohort (generational) effects, and what are age and time period effects?
(ii) How big are social multiplier effects through which one individual's attitude, behaviour and sick-le ave level affects that of others? We have estimates of GP "strictness" from previous work, which allows us to examine the impulse to an individual's sick-leave level from "exogenous" changes in assigned GP. By studying how this impulse propagates to colle agues and family we can get a credible estimate of the size and importance of these social interaction effects.
(iii) We will also empirically assess changes in sick-leave patterns around life events (divorce, deaths in the family, pregnancy), using medi cal data in the case of pregnancy to separate medical from non-medical changes.

3. What are the long-term effects of the 2004 and 2007 reforms? Were the positive effects of the 2004 reform lasting or temporary? How did the 2007 reform influence sick-le ave patterns? More specifically, what was the timing and to what extent were the mandated employer/employee meetings implemented, and what were their effects when they were implemented?


Scientific Journal

Markussen, Simen, Knut Røed, Ragnhild C. SchreinerCan compulsory dialogs nudge sick-listed workers back to work?2018Economic Journal 128(610), 1276-1303[DOI]
Markussen, Simen, Knut Røed and Ole RøgebergThe changing of the guards - can family doctors contain worker absenteeism?2013Journal of Health Economics Vol 32(6), 1230-1239[PDF]
Markussen, Simen og Ole RøgebergSykefravær rundt større livshendelser2012Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening Vol 132(10), 1231-1234[PDF]



Markussen, Simen og Marte StrømThe effects of motherhood2015No. 19[PDF]

Other publications

Markussen, S., K. Røed, R.C. SchreinerCan Compulsory Dialogues Nudge Sick-Listed Workers Back to Work?2015IZA Discussion Paper 9090[PDF]
Markussen, Simen, Ole Røgeberg, og Knut RøedThe Changing of the Guards: Can Physicians Contain Social Insurance Costs?2013IZA Discussion Paper no 7122[PDF]