TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Pichler, Stefan
AU  - Wen, Katherine
AU  - Ziebarth, Nicolas R.
        TI  - Positive Health Externalities of Mandating Paid Sick Leave
        PY  - 2020/Jul/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 13530
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp13530
        AB  - A growing economic literature studies the optimal design of social insurance systems and the empirical identification of welfare-relevant externalities. In this paper, we test whether mandating employee access to paid sick leave has reduced influenza-like-illness (ILI) transmission rates as well as pneumonia and influenza (P&I) mortality rates in the United States. Using uniquely compiled data from administrative sources at the state-week level from 2010 to 2018 along with difference-in-differences methods, we present quasi-experimental evidence that sick pay mandates have causally reduced doctor-certified ILI rates at the population level. On average, ILI rates fell by about 11 percent or 290 ILI cases per 100,000 patients per week in the first year.
        KW  - negative externalities
KW  - sick pay mandates
KW  - population health
KW  - flu infection
        ER  -