The Effects of Expanding the Generosity of the Statutory Sickness Insurance System

Nicolas Ziebarth () and Martin Karlsson

No 245, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: In 1999, in Germany, the statutory sick pay level was increased from 80 to 100 percent of foregone earnings for sicknessepisodes of up to six weeks. We show that this reform has led to an increase in average absence days of about 10 percent or one additional day per employee, per year. The estimates are based on SOEP survey data and parametric, nonparametric, and combined matching-regression difference-in-differences methods. Extended calculations suggest that the reform might have increased labor costs by about €1.8 billion per year and might have led to the loss of around 50,000 jobs.

Keywords: Sickness absence; statutory sick pay; natural experiment; Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H51 I18 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 p.
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.344887.de/diw_sp0245.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: THE EFFECTS OF EXPANDING THE GENEROSITY OF THE STATUTORY SICKNESS INSURANCE SYSTEM (2014)
Working Paper: The Effects of Expanding the Generosity of the Statutory Sickness Insurance System (2013)
Working Paper: The effects of expanding the generosity of the statutory sickness insurance system (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp245

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