The anatomy of US sick leave schemes: Evidence from public school teachers
This talk will focus on my paper studying how US employees use paid sick leave.
The most common US sick-leave schemes operate as individualized credit accounts---paid leave is earned over time and unused leave accumulates, producing an employee-specific "leave balance."
We construct a unique administrative dataset containing the daily balance information and leave behaviour of 982 public school teachers from 2010 to 2018.
We have three main findings: First, we provide evidence of judicious sick-leave use -- namely, teachers use more sick leave during higher flu activity---but no evidence of inappropriate use for the purposes of leisure. Second, we find that leave use is increasing in the leave balance with an average balance-use elasticity of 0.45. This relationship is strongest at the very bottom of the balance distribution. Third, we find that a higher leave balance reduces the likelihood that a teacher works sick ("presenteeism"), especially during flu season.
Taken together, these results suggest that a simple alteration to the current sick-leave scheme could reduce the likelihood of presenteeism, thereby lowering infection risk in schools, with few adverse consequences.
Speaker Profile
Professor Nicolas R. Ziebarth, University of Mannheim
Prof Ziebarth is head of ZEW's Labour Markets and Social Insurance Research Unit, and a professor of economics at the University of Mannheim. Before joining ZEW in July 2022, he was an associate professor at Cornell University. Dr. Ziebarth earned his PhD in economics at TU Berlin/DIW Berlin in 2011.
Prof Ziebarth’s research studies the interaction of (social) insurance systems with labour markets and population health. In particular, he is an international expert on the economics of sick leave. His sick leave research has been featured by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the WHO and the Economist, and cited as a reason for the Healthy Families Act, the initial FFCRA emergency sick leave provision as well as its extension.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact shannon.stanwell@monash.edu
Event Details
- Date:
- 16 August 2023 at 10:00 am – 11:00 am
- Venue:
- In-person at Caulfield campus, Building H, Level 9, Room H813 and Zoom
- Categories:
- CHE Seminar; Health Economics
Description
This talk will focus on my paper studying how US employees use paid sick leave.
The most common US sick-leave schemes operate as individualized credit accounts---paid leave is earned over time and unused leave accumulates, producing an employee-specific "leave balance."
We construct a unique administrative dataset containing the daily balance information and leave behaviour of 982 public school teachers from 2010 to 2018.
We have three main findings: First, we provide evidence of judicious sick-leave use -- namely, teachers use more sick leave during higher flu activity---but no evidence of inappropriate use for the purposes of leisure. Second, we find that leave use is increasing in the leave balance with an average balance-use elasticity of 0.45. This relationship is strongest at the very bottom of the balance distribution. Third, we find that a higher leave balance reduces the likelihood that a teacher works sick ("presenteeism"), especially during flu season.
Taken together, these results suggest that a simple alteration to the current sick-leave scheme could reduce the likelihood of presenteeism, thereby lowering infection risk in schools, with few adverse consequences.
Speaker Profile
Professor Nicolas R. Ziebarth, University of Mannheim
Prof Ziebarth is head of ZEW's Labour Markets and Social Insurance Research Unit, and a professor of economics at the University of Mannheim. Before joining ZEW in July 2022, he was an associate professor at Cornell University. Dr. Ziebarth earned his PhD in economics at TU Berlin/DIW Berlin in 2011.
Prof Ziebarth’s research studies the interaction of (social) insurance systems with labour markets and population health. In particular, he is an international expert on the economics of sick leave. His sick leave research has been featured by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the WHO and the Economist, and cited as a reason for the Healthy Families Act, the initial FFCRA emergency sick leave provision as well as its extension.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact shannon.stanwell@monash.edu