Gender differences in preferences for health-related absences from work

Daniel Avdic () and Per Johansson

No 2013:13, Working Paper Series from IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy

Abstract: Women are on average more absent from work for health reasons than men. At the same time, they live longer. This conflicting pattern suggests that part of the gender difference in health-related absenteeism arises from differences between the genders unrelated to actual health. An overlooked explanation could be that men an women's preferences for absenteeism differ, for example because of gender differences in risk preferences. These differences may originate from the utility-maximizing of households in which women's traditional dual roles influence household decisions to invest primarily in women's health. Using detailed administrative data on sick leave, hospital visits and objective health measures we first investigate the existence of gender-specific preferences for abstenteeism and subsequently test for the household investment hypothesis. We find evidence for the existence of gender differences in preferences for absence from work, and that a non-trivial part of these preference differences can be attributed to household investments in women's health.

Keywords: Sickness absence; gender norms; health investments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 I13 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59 pages
Date: 2013-05-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-hea, nep-hrm and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as Avdic, Daniel and Per Johansson, 'Absenteeism, Gender and the Morbidity–Mortality Paradox' in Journal of Applied Econometrics, 2017, pages 440-462.

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Working Paper: Gender Differences in Preferences for Health-Related Absences from Work (2013)
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