TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Lindbeck, Assar
AU  - Palme, Mårten
AU  - Persson, Mats
        TI  - Sickness Absence and Local Benefit Cultures
        PY  - 2011/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 6245
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp6245
        AB  - In many countries, sickness absence financed by generous insurance benefits has become an important concern in the policy debate. It turns out that there are strong variations in absence behavior between local geographical areas, and it has been difficult to explain these variations by observable socioeconomic factors. In this paper we investigate whether such variation is related to group effects in the form of social interaction among individuals within neighborhoods. Well-known methodological problems arise when trying to answer such a question. A special feature of our attempt to deal with these problems is that we adopt several alternative approaches to identify group effects. We base the study on a rich set of Swedish panel data, and we find indications of group effects in each one of our approaches.
        KW  - reflection problem
KW  - moral hazard
KW  - work absence
KW  - sick-pay insurance
KW  - social norms
        ER  -