The causal effect of workload on the labour supply of older employees

Espen Bratberg (), Tor Helge Holmås () and Karin Monstad ()
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Tor Helge Holmås: NORCE, Postal: Nygårdsgaten 112, 5008 Bergen, https://uni.no/en/staff/directory/tor-helge-holmas/
Karin Monstad: NORCE, Postal: Nygårdsgaten 112, 5008 Bergen, https://uni.no/en/staff/directory/karin-monstad/

No 16/17, Working Papers in Economics from University of Bergen, Department of Economics

Abstract: Several policies aim to keep older workers in the labour force, but little is known about their effects. We investigate the effects of a particular programme in Norway that reduces the workload of teachers at age 55 but maintains the same wage. Evaluation of this programme is well suited to a differencein-difference analysis, where the control group is teachers slightly too young to be eligible for the workload reduction. Using full population register data for the period 2005–2013, we analyse the effects of the programme on sickness absence, contracted hours, mental health, and musculoskeletal problems. We find that the programme reduces sickness absence and mental health problems for men, but not for women, and there is no effect on contracted hours. The results are robust to a number of checks.

Keywords: workload; older workers; sickness absence; absenteeism; working hours; difference-in-difference; triple DD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 I12 J32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2017-12-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age and nep-hea
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