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PAY, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE COST OF WORKER ABSENCE
Author(s) -
COLES MELVYN,
LANFRANCHI JOSEPH,
SKALLI ALI,
TREBLE JOHN
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2006.00031.x
Subject(s) - absenteeism , shadow (psychology) , economics , labour economics , microeconomics , management , psychology , psychotherapist
Conventional studies of absenteeism concentrate on labor supply. An equilibrium approach, however, establishes that the shadow cost of absenteeism varies across firms that operate different technologies. Using an unusual employee/employer matched data set from France, which records both individual worker absenteeism and information about technology, we show that firms operating just‐in‐time technology have higher shadow costs of absence than firms that do not. The estimates are used to calculate the economy‐wide cost of absence, which turns out to be very low. ( JEL J22, J31, J41)