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Do Financial Bonuses Reduce Employee Absenteeism? Evidence from a Lottery

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  • Wolter H.J. Hassink
  • Pierre Koning

Abstract

This paper investigates the effectiveness of a lottery-based bonus reward system in reducing employee absenteeism. Starting in June 2002, a Dutch manufacturing firm held a monthly lottery for workers who had taken no sick leave in the previous three months and had not previously won the lottery. In a given lottery, each of seven contestants whose names were randomly drawn received 75 Euros. The authors find statistically significant differences in absence patterns across groups of workers with different eligibility statuses depending on their attendance records and whether they had previously won. One finding is that absenteeism rose among workers who, having won already, were ineligible for further participation. Nevertheless, and although the reduction in firm-wide absence associated with the lottery drifted from 2.4 percentage points to 1.1 percentage points after seven months, the authors conclude that the lottery was of net benefit to the firm.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolter H.J. Hassink & Pierre Koning, 2009. "Do Financial Bonuses Reduce Employee Absenteeism? Evidence from a Lottery," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 62(3), pages 327-342, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:62:y:2009:i:3:p:327-342
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390906200304
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. W.H.J. Hassink & P. Koning, 2005. "Do Financial Bonuses to Employees Reduce their Absenteeism? Outcome of a Lottery," Working Papers 05-27, Utrecht School of Economics.
    4. Magnus Henrekson & Mats Persson, 2004. "The Effects on Sick Leave of Changes in the Sickness Insurance System," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(1), pages 87-114, January.
    5. Engellandt, Axel & Riphahn, Regina T., 2004. "Incentive Effects of Bonus Payments: Evidence from an International Company," IZA Discussion Papers 1229, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    7. Sarah Brown & Fathi Fakhfakh & John G. Sessions, 1999. "Absenteeism and Employee Sharing: An Empirical Analysis Based on French Panel Data, 1981–1991," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 52(2), pages 234-251, January.
    8. Kaivanto, Kim, 1997. "An alternative model of pro-cyclical absenteeism," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 29-34, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jed DeVaro, 2022. "Performance pay, working hours, and health‐related absenteeism," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 327-352, October.
    2. Hassink, Wolter & Fernandez, Roberto M., 2015. "Worker Morale and Effort: Is the Relationship Causal?," IZA Discussion Papers 8909, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Heijnen, Suzanne & Hassink, Wolter & Plantenga, Janneke, 2016. "Sickness absenteeism during a period of job-to-job transition," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 145-147.
    4. Goerke, Laszlo & Pannenberg, Markus, 2015. "Trade union membership and sickness absence: Evidence from a sick pay reform," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 13-25.
    5. Christian Pfeifer, 2013. "Cyclical Absenteeism Among Private Sector, Public Sector And Self‐Employed Workers," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 366-370, March.
    6. Nicolas R. Ziebarth & Martin Karlsson, 2014. "The Effects Of Expanding The Generosity Of The Statutory Sickness Insurance System," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 208-230, March.
    7. Christian Pfeifer, 2014. "Base Salaries, Bonus Payments, and Work Absence among Managers in a German Company," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(5), pages 523-536, November.
    8. Bryson, Alex & Dale-Olsen, Harald, 2017. "Does Sick Pay Affect Workplace Absence?," IZA Discussion Papers 11222, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Ben S. Meiselman & Collin Weigel & Paul J. Ferraro & Mark Masters & Kent D. Messer & Olesya M. Savchenko & Jordan F. Suter, 2022. "Lottery Incentives and Resource Management: Evidence from the Agricultural Data Reporting Incentive Program (AgDRIP)," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(4), pages 847-867, August.
    10. D.S. Possenriede & W.H.J. Hassink & J. Plantenga, 2014. "Does temporal and locational flexibility of work reduce absenteeism?," Working Papers 14-09, Utrecht School of Economics.
    11. Wolter Hassink, 2018. "How to reduce workplace absenteeism," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 447-447, September.
    12. Pierre Koning, 2016. "Privatizing sick pay: Does it work?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 324-324, December.

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