Working Paper: NBER ID: w27792
Authors: Krista J. Ruffini; Aaron Sojourner; Abigail K. Wozniak
Abstract: COVID symptom screening, a new workplace practice, is likely to affect many millions of American workers in the coming months. Eleven states already require and federal guidance recommends frequent screening of employees for infection symptoms. This paper provides some of the first empirical work exploring the tradeoffs employers face in using daily symptom screening. First, we find that common symptom checkers will likely screen out up to 7 percent of workers each day, depending on the measure used. Second, we find that the measures used will matter for three reasons: many respondents report any given symptom, survey design affects responses, and demographic groups report symptoms at different rates, even absent fluctuations in likely COVID exposure. This last pattern can potentially lead to disparate impacts, and is important from an equity standpoint.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I1; J5; J7; K3; M5
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| daily symptom screening (I10) | screening out workers (J63) |
| demographic factors (J11) | symptom reporting (C83) |
| symptom reporting (C83) | screening outcomes (C52) |
| screening outcomes (C52) | employment disparities (J79) |
| high-risk individuals flagged (I12) | prevalence of COVID-19 infection (I14) |