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Social Behaviour in Work Absence *
Author(s) -
Hesselius Patrik,
Johansson Per,
Vikström Johan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the scandinavian journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.725
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1467-9442
pISSN - 0347-0520
DOI - 10.1111/sjoe.12030
Subject(s) - work (physics) , test (biology) , scale (ratio) , economics , social insurance , variation (astronomy) , psychology , social psychology , demographic economics , public economics , biology , engineering , mechanical engineering , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , astrophysics , market economy
By making use of a large‐scale randomized experiment, we test whether social behaviour is important for work absence due to illness. The individuals treated in the experiment were exposed to less monitoring of their eligibility to collect sickness insurance benefits, which sharply increased their non‐monitored work absence. This exogenous variation is exploited in two complementary analyses. In both analyses, we find significant social‐behaviour effects. Using detailed data, we conclude that the social‐behaviour effects most likely stem from fairness concerns.