Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP10055
Authors: Martin Huber; Michael Lechner; Conny Wunsch
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 out¬comes 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 unob¬served fac¬tors. 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 em¬ployees (51-60), implying potential cost savings for public transfer schemes such as unemployment or early retirement benefits.
Keywords: analysis of sickness absenteeism; firm health policies; health circles; health courses; matching
JEL Codes: I10; I19; J32
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| health promotion measures (I14) | tenure (M51) |
| health promotion measures (I14) | job changes (J62) |
| health promotion measures (I14) | labour force attachment of elderly employees (J14) |
| sickness absenteeism (J22) | labour market outcomes (J48) |
| health promotion measures (I14) | reliance on unemployment insurance (J65) |