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Family illness, work absence and gender

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  • Begoña Álvarez

Abstract

Combining family and work demands has become a tough challenge for many workers in modern societies. Using data from a random sample of Spanish employees, this paper investigates the effects of attending to family health needs on work absence decisions of working individuals. The estimates reveal that men and women respond in a different way to several forces influencing work absence due to family illness. The analysis also shows that workers declaring to have used working time to attend to ill relatives are more prone to report sickness absence episodes. Estimates from bivariate probit equations shows that controlling for endogeneity removes this relationship for men, but the effect of absence due to family illness on sickness absence reporting remains positive and significant for women, leaving room for causal explanations.

Suggested Citation

  • Begoña Álvarez, 2002. "Family illness, work absence and gender," Working Papers 0210, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    • Handle: RePEc:vig:wpaper:0210
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    sickness absence; caregiving; family-work conflict; gender differences; bivariate probit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J29 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Other
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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