I analyze how general practitioners (GPs) indirectly affect their patients' employment outcomes by deciding on the length of sickness absences. I use an instrumental variables framework where spell durations are identified through supply-side certification measures estimated from the data. I...

I analyze how general practitioners (GPs) indirectly affect their patients' employment outcomes by deciding on the length of sickness absences. I use an instrumental variables framework where spell durations are identified through supply-side certification measures estimated from the data. I...

Reductions in SI replacement levels has been a widely used instrument to lower sickness absence rates. The idea is that increasing the direct cost of absence would lower the absence rate. This paper explores a reform to the compulsory Swedish SI that meant that the replacement rate varied over...

We investigate whether interventions by (i) medical doctors and (ii) occupational specialists are effective in reducing sick leave durations among self-employed workers. To this end, we exploit unique administrative data comprising all sick leave claims by self-employed workers insured with the...

We estimate sickness absences on Mondays and Fridays which fall between a weekend and public holidays, so called "bridging days". Many public holidays change their day of the week over the years. We find that sickness absences are considerably lower on bridging days than on regular Mondays and...