Working Paper: NBER ID: w16523
Authors: Jonah E. Rockoff; Mariesa A. Herrmann
Abstract: Ichino and Moretti (2009) find that menstruation may contribute to gender gaps in absenteeism and earnings, based on evidence that absences of young female Italian bank employees follow a 28-day cycle. We analyze absenteeism of teachers and find no evidence of increased female absenteeism on a 28-day cycle. We also show that the evidence of 28-day cycles in the Italian data is not robust to the correction of coding errors or small changes in specification. We show that five day workweeks can cause misleading group differences in absence hazards at multiples of 7, including 28 days.
Keywords: menstruation; absenteeism; gender gaps; labor market
JEL Codes: I19; J16; J22
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| menstruation (B54) | absenteeism (J22) |
| young female teachers' absenteeism (J22) | 28-day intervals (C41) |
| coding errors (C88) | menstruation's impact on absenteeism (J22) |
| 5-day workweek (J29) | cycles of absences (J22) |
| absenteeism patterns (J22) | multiples of 7 (C39) |