Factors associated with first return to work and sick leave durations in workers with common mental disorders

Background: Associations are examined between socio-demographic, medical, work-related and organizational factors and the moment of first return to work (RTW) (within or after 6 weeks of sick leave) and total sick leave duration in sick leave spells due to common mental disorders. Methods: Data are derived from a Dutch database, build to provide reference data for sick leave duration for various medical conditions. The cases in this study were entered in 2004 and 2005 by specially trained occupational health physicians, based on the physician's assessment of medical and other factors. Odds ratios for first RTW and sick leave durations are calculated in logistic regression models. Results: Burnout, depression and anxiety disorder are associated with longer sick leave duration. Similar, but weaker associations were found for female sex, being a teacher, small company size and moderate or high psychosocial hazard. Distress is associated with shorter sick leave duration. Medical factors, psychosocial hazard and company size are also and analogously associated with first RTW. Part-time work is associated with delayed first RTW. The strength of the associations varies for various factors and for different sick leave durations. Conclusion: The medical diagnosis has a strong relation with the moment of first RTW and the duration of sick leave spells in mental disorders, but the influence of demographic and work-related factors should not be neglected

"Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop": Waiting for Health Care and Duration of Sick Leave

This paper uses a labor supply model that incorporates waiting for health care to derive an empirical specification for sick leave and to estimate the impact of waiting for health care on the duration of sick leave. In the estimations, we use the 2002 sample of the RFV-LS register database, supplemented with information from questionnaires. The results indicate that almost all waiting for health care variables have a statistically significant positive impact on the duration of sick leave, and did not induce substantial changes on the impact of traditional variables of the labor supply model.sick leave; waiting list

Career Interruptions due to Parental Leave - A Comparative Study of Denmark and Sweden

Parental leave mandates are associated with high female employment rates, but with reductions in relative female wages if leave is of extended duration. We analyze the impact of family policies (parental leave and childcare prices) of Denmark and Sweden on women’s career breaks due to childbirth. These countries are culturally similar and share the same type of welfare state ideology, but differ remarkably in pursued family policies. Our analysis takes advantage of the availability of comparable longitudinal data and allows us to estimate parallel models across the two countries. The impact of family policies and economic incentives on the probability of returning to the labor market is estimated using a duration model approach. Our results show that economic incentives affect the behavior of mothers in both countries. However, the parental leave mandates as such are very important determinants for the observed behavior. Based on policy simulations we find that if fathers were given more parental leave, it would promote the labor supply of women.Maternal Leave; Parental Leave; Childcare; Family Policy; Mothers’ Labor Supply

Does Sick Absence Increase the Risk of Unemployment?

The paper examines whether a worker's sick absence behaviour influences the risk of becoming unemployed. Swedish panel data are used to estimate the relationship between the incidence and duration of sick leave and subsequent unemployment. The results indicate that an increase in the number of sick leaves as well as an increase in the duration of sick spells is associated with higher risk of unemployment. Women have a significantly higher risk then men of unemployment associated with sick leave spells longer than 28 days. An implication of the results is that less absence-prone workers are more likely to remain employed in a recession. This in turn may in part explain the pro-cyclical pattern of aggregate Swedish sick absence rates.Sick leave; sickness insurance; health; unemployment; duration analysis

The Willingness to Pay for Job Amenities: Evidence from Mothers' Return to Work

This study is the first to estimate mothers’ marginal willingness to pay (MWP) for job amenities directly. Its identification strategy relies on German maternity leave length. The key aspect of the maternal leave framework is that mothers can decide whether and when to return to their guaranteed job. Thus, in contrast to previous studies that analyze the job search of employed workers, this framework allows us to overcome the limitation of not observing the wage/amenity offer process. A theoretical model of the leave length decision is derived from a random utility approach. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the Qualification and Career Survey, this model is estimated by a discrete duration method. The MWP for amenities can be inferred through the estimated elasticities of the leave length with respect to the amenities and the wage. The results provide evidence that mothers are willing to sacrifice a significant fraction of their wage to reduce hazards (22%) and to enjoy a flexible working schedule (36-56%).marginal willingness to pay, maternal labor supply, discrete duration models

Maternal employment, breastfeeding, and health: Evidence from maternity leave mandates

Public health agencies around the world have renewed efforts to increase the incidence and duration of breastfeeding. Maternity leave mandates present an economic policy that could help achieve these goals. We study their efficacy focusing on a significant increase in maternity leave mandates in Canada. We find very large increases in mothers' time away from work post-birth and in the attainment of critical breastfeeding duration thresholds. However, we find little impact on the self-reported indicators of maternal and child health captured in our data.

The Duration of Paid Parental Leave and Children's Scholastic Performance

We study how the duration of paid parental leave affects the accumulation of cognitive skills among children. We use a reform which extended parental leave benefits from 12 to 15 months for Swedish children born after August 1988 to evaluate the effects of prolonged parental leave on children's test scores and grades at age 16. We show that, on average, the reform had no effect on children's scholastic performance. However, we do find positive effects for children of well-educated mothers, a result that is robust to a number of different specifications. We find no corresponding heterogeneity relative to parental earnings or fathers' education, or relative to other predictors of child performance. We find no effects on intermediate outcomes such as mothers' subsequent earnings, child health, parental fertility, divorce rates, or the mothers' mental health. Overall the results suggest positive causal interaction effects between mothers' education and the amount of time mothers spend with their children. Since the institutional context is one in which the alternative is subsidized day care, the results imply that subsidizing longer parental leave spells rather than day care reinforce the relationship between maternal education and school outcomes.maternal employment, education, human capital, cognitive skills

The Willingness to Pay for Job Amenities: Evidence from Mothers' Return to Work

This study is the first to estimate mothers' marginal willingness to pay (MWP) for job amenities directly. Its identification strategy relies on German maternity leave length. The key aspect of the maternal leave framework is that mothers can decide whether and when to return to their guaranteed job. Thus, in contrast to previous studies that analyze the job search of employed workers, this framework allows us to overcome the limitation of not observing the wage/amenity offer process. A theoretical model of the leave length decision is derived from a random utility approach. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the Qualification and Career Survey, this model is estimated by a discrete duration method. The MWP for amenities can be inferred through the estimated elasticities of the leave length with respect to the amenities and the wage. The results provide evidence that mothers are willing to sacrifice a significant fraction of their wage to reduce hazards (20%) and to enjoy a flexible working schedule (44-56%).Marginal Willingness to Pay, Maternal Labor Supply, Discrete Duration Models

Wage Dips and Drops around First Birth

We use a rich longitudinal data set for West Germany to disentangle the wage effects for female workers around first birth. Data on daily real wages reveal a dip in women’s real wages shortly before giving birth and a drop of 10 to 20 percent after finishing maternity leave and returning to the labour market. To pinpoint what drives the movement in wages around the first birth, we analyse the wages of women, taking into account the potential correlation of the duration of individual interruptions due to parental leave with other unobserved individually specific factors and non random sample selection. In order to identify the causes of the movements in wages we exploit the panel structure of the data, regional variations in access to child care and female unemployment rates, as well as policy changes, which increased the maximum duration of parental leave from 6 months to 3 years.female wages panel data; instrumental variable estimation