Gli effetti della legge n. 133 del 2008 sulle assenze per malattia nel settore pubblico

This paper assesses the impact of a reform addressing absenteeism in the Italian public sector. When stricter monitoring was introduced together with an average 20% cut in replacement rates for civil servants on short sick leave, sickness absence decreased by 26.4%, eliminating the wedge in absence rates with comparable private sector workers. The impact substantially decreased when a subsequent policy change brought back monitoring to the pre-reform level, while leaving monetary incentives untouched. Results are confirmed by a variety of robustness checks and are not driven by the attenuation of the reform effects over time.