The Economic Burden of Burnout

Arash Nekoei, Sigurdsson, Jósef and Dominik Wehr

No 19091, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We study occupational stress, from its initial symptoms to permanent productivity loss, using Swedish administrative data. Stress symptoms emerge and steadily intensify over a year, culminating in a tipping point of burnout. High-stress occupations do not see higher burnout rates among stress-tolerant workers, but disproportionately affect those with low stress tolerance. Burnout results in substantial and permanent earnings losses, with similar magnitude across genders, despite women being three times more susceptible. Burnout’s toll spills over, reducing spousal earnings and children’s human capital (school grades and college enrollment), especially in lower-educated families, thereby stalling intergenerational mobility. Through sick leaves, earnings losses, and spillovers, burnout reduces national labor income by 3.6%. Combining our cost estimates with a prediction model of burnout—enhanced by a brief, high-frequency occupational stress survey—can optimize the scope and targeting of preventive programs and reduce the economic burden of burnout.

Keywords: Amenities; Employment; Misallocation; Fiscal costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 I18 J21 J28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-05
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP19091 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19091

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP19091

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().