IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v167y2018icp190-204.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spillovers from gatekeeping – Peer effects in absenteeism

Author

Listed:
  • Godøy, Anna
  • Dale-Olsen, Harald

Abstract

We study peer effects in absenteeism among workplace colleagues. Gatekeeping is an essential task in many insurance systems. In this study we exploit exogenous shifts of general practitioners (GPs) occurring when physicians quit or retire. We find that these shifts induce changes in absenteeism for affected workers. By utilizing high-quality Norwegian matched employer-employee data with detailed individual information on certified sick leave during the period 2003–2012, we can study how the transfer of workers between GPs affects co-workers' absenteeism. We identify strong causal positive peer effects in absenteeism: a one day change in focal worker sickness absence transfers to a 0.41 day shift in peer absence.

Suggested Citation

  • Godøy, Anna & Dale-Olsen, Harald, 2018. "Spillovers from gatekeeping – Peer effects in absenteeism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 190-204.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:167:y:2018:i:c:p:190-204
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.08.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272718301592
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.08.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ernst Fehr & Simon Gächter, 2000. "Fairness and Retaliation: The Economics of Reciprocity," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 159-181, Summer.
    2. George A. Akerlof & Janet L. Yellen, 1990. "The Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis and Unemployment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(2), pages 255-283.
    3. Ernst Fehr & Klaus M. Schmidt, 1999. "A Theory of Fairness, Competition, and Cooperation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 817-868.
    4. Gordon B. Dahl & Andreas Ravndal Kostøl & Magne Mogstad, 2014. "Family Welfare Cultures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1711-1752.
    5. Gordon B. Dahl & Katrine V. L?ken & Magne Mogstad, 2014. "Peer Effects in Program Participation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2049-2074, July.
    6. Jan Erik Askildsen & Espen Bratberg & Øivind Anti Nilsen, 2005. "Unemployment, labor force composition and sickness absence: a panel data study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(11), pages 1087-1101, November.
    7. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Nathaniel Hilger & Emmanuel Saez & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach & Danny Yagan, 2011. "How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project Star," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 1593-1660.
    8. Mari Rege & Kjetil Telle & Mark Votruba, 2012. "Social Interaction Effects in Disability Pension Participation: Evidence from Plant Downsizing," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1208-1239, December.
    9. Assar Lindbeck & Mårten Palme & Mats Persson, 2016. "Sickness Absence and Local Benefit Cultures," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 118(1), pages 49-78, January.
    10. Amy Finkelstein & Matthew Gentzkow & Heidi Williams, 2016. "Sources of Geographic Variation in Health Care: Evidence From PatientMigration," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1681-1726.
    11. Markussen, Simen & Røed, Knut, 2017. "The market for paid sick leave," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 244-261.
    12. Eric French & Jae Song, 2014. "The Effect of Disability Insurance Receipt on Labor Supply," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 291-337, May.
    13. George A. Akerlof, 1982. "Labor Contracts as Partial Gift Exchange," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(4), pages 543-569.
    14. Harald Dale-Olsen & Kjersti Misje Østbakken & Pål Schøne, 2015. "Imitation, Contagion, or Exertion? Using a Tax Reform to Reveal How Colleagues' Sick Leaves Influence Worker Behaviour," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(1), pages 57-83, January.
    15. Andrea Ichino & Regina T. Riphahn, 2005. "The Effect of Employment Protection on Worker Effort: Absenteeism During and After Probation," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(1), pages 120-143, March.
    16. Nicole Maestas & Kathleen J. Mullen & Alexander Strand, 2013. "Does Disability Insurance Receipt Discourage Work? Using Examiner Assignment to Estimate Causal Effects of SSDI Receipt," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1797-1829, August.
    17. Angrist, Joshua D., 2014. "The perils of peer effects," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 98-108.
    18. Hesselius, Patrik & Johansson, Per & Nilsson, Peter, 2009. "Sick of your colleagues' absence?," Working Paper Series 2009:2, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    19. Blomqvist, Ake, 1991. "The doctor as double agent: Information asymmetry, health insurance, and medical care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 411-432.
    20. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    21. Kandel, Eugene & Lazear, Edward P, 1992. "Peer Pressure and Partnerships," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 801-817, August.
    22. Olof Åslund & Peter Fredriksson, 2009. "Peer Effects in Welfare Dependence: Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(3).
    23. Grytten, Jostein & Sorensen, Rune, 2003. "Practice variation and physician-specific effects," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 403-418, May.
    24. Simen Markussen & Knut Røed, 2015. "Social Insurance Networks," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(4), pages 1081-1113.
    25. Markussen, Simen & Røed, Knut & Røgeberg, Ole J. & Gaure, Simen, 2011. "The anatomy of absenteeism," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 277-292, March.
    26. Ramon Casadesus‐Masanell, 2004. "Trust in Agency," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 375-404, September.
    27. Kumar, S. & Grefenstette, J.J. & Galloway, D. & Albert, S.M. & Burke, D.S., 2013. "Policies to reduce influenza in the workplace: Impact assessments using an agent-based model," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(8), pages 1406-1411.
    28. Dusheiko, Mark & Gravelle, Hugh & Jacobs, Rowena & Smith, Peter, 2006. "The effect of financial incentives on gatekeeping doctors: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 449-478, May.
    29. Guido W. Imbens & Donald B. Rubin, 1997. "Estimating Outcome Distributions for Compliers in Instrumental Variables Models," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 555-574.
    30. Marathe, A. & Chen, J. & Eubank, S. & Liao, S. & Ma, Y., 2014. "Impact of paid sick leave policy: A social planner's perspective," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(1), pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Boeri, Tito & Di Porto, Edoardo & Naticchioni, Paolo & Scrutinio, Vincenzo, 2021. "Friday Morning Fever. Evidence from a Randomized Experiment on Sick Leave Monitoring in the Public Sector," CEPR Discussion Papers 16104, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Simonsen, Marianne & Skipper, Lars & Skipper, Niels & Thingholm, Peter Rønø, 2021. "Discontinuity in care: Practice closures among primary care providers and patient health care utilization," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. Mario Lackner & Hendrik Sonnabend, 2023. "Presenteeism when employers are under pressure: evidence from a high‐stakes environment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(358), pages 477-507, April.
    4. Emilia Simeonova & Niels Skipper & Peter R. Thingholm, 2020. "Physician Health Management Skills and Patient Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 26735, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Gershenson, Seth & Lindsay, Constance A. & Papageorge, Nicholas W. & Campbell, Romaine A. & Rendon, Jessica H., 2023. "Spillover Effects of Black Teachers on White Teachers' Racial Competency: Mixed Methods Evidence from North Carolina," IZA Discussion Papers 16258, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Rinsky-Halivni, Lilah & Hovav, Boaz & Christiani, David C. & Brammli-Greenberg, Shuli, 2022. "Aging workforce with reduced work capacity: From organizational challenges to successful accommodations sustaining productivity and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    7. Willén, Alexander & Willage, Barton & Riise, Julie, 2022. "Employment Protection and Child Development," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 19/2022, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bratberg, Espen & Monstad, Karin, 2015. "Worried sick? Worker responses to a financial shock," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 111-120.
    2. Markussen, Simen & Røed, Knut & Røgeberg, Ole, 2013. "The changing of the guards," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1230-1239.
    3. Wolter H. J. Hassink & Roberto M. Fernandez, 2018. "Worker Morale and Effort: Is the Relationship Causal?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 86(6), pages 816-839, December.
    4. Dimant, Eugen, 2015. "On Peer Effects: Behavioral Contagion of (Un)Ethical Behavior and the Role of Social Identity," MPRA Paper 68732, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Rieck, Karsten Marshall Elseth & Vaage, Kjell, 2012. "Social Interactions At The Workplace: Exploring Sickness Absence Behavior," Working Papers in Economics 11/12, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    6. Pichler, Stefan & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2024. "Sick leave and medical leave in the United States: A categorization and recent trends," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-011, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Schreiner, Ragnhild C., 2019. "Unemployed or Disabled? Disability Screening and Labor Market Outcomes of Youths," Memorandum 5/2019, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    8. Hassink, Wolter & Fernandez, Roberto M., 2015. "Worker Morale and Effort: Is the Relationship Causal?," IZA Discussion Papers 8909, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Markussen, Simen & Mykletun, Arnstein & Røed, Knut, 2012. "The case for presenteeism — Evidence from Norway's sickness insurance program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 959-972.
    10. Aurélie BONEIN, 2014. "Social Comparison and Peer effects with Heterogeneous Ability," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 201411, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.
    11. Maclean, J. Catherine & Pichler, Stefan & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2020. "Mandated Sick Pay: Coverage, Utilization, and Welfare Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 13132, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Grossmann, Volker, 2002. "Is it rational to internalize the personal norm that one should reciprocate?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 27-48, February.
    13. Gerald J. Pruckner & Thomas Schober & Katrin Zocher, 2020. "The company you keep: health behavior among work peers," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 21(2), pages 251-259, March.
    14. Cronin, C.J.; & Harris, M. C.; & Ziebarth, N. R.;, 2024. "The Anatomy of U.S. Sick Leave Schemes:Evidence from Public School Teachers," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 24/10, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    15. Rebitzer, James B. & Taylor, Lowell J., 2011. "Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motives: Standard and Behavioral Approaches to Agency and Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 8, pages 701-772, Elsevier.
    16. Krupka, Erin & Weber, Roberto A., 2009. "The focusing and informational effects of norms on pro-social behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 307-320, June.
    17. Simon Gächter & Daniele Nosenzo & Martin Sefton, 2012. "The Impact of Social Comparisons on Reciprocity," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1346-1367, December.
    18. Masclet, David & Montmarquette, Claude & Viennot-Briot, Nathalie, 2019. "Can whistleblower programs reduce tax evasion? Experimental evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    19. John A. List, 2006. "The Behavioralist Meets the Market: Measuring Social Preferences and Reputation Effects in Actual Transactions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(1), pages 1-37, February.
    20. Bejarano, Hernán & Corgnet, Brice & Gómez-Miñambres, Joaquín, 2021. "Economic stability promotes gift-exchange in the workplace," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 374-398.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sickness absence; Social interaction; General practitioners; Co-workers; Panel data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:167:y:2018:i:c:p:190-204. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505578 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.