The effect of permanent employment on absenteeism: evidence from labor reform in Spain

García Mainar, Inmaculada ; Green, Colin P. ; Navarro Paniagua, María

Resumen: Restrictive employment protection legislation has been highlighted as a key reason for lower labor productivity in Europe compared to the United States. Evidence in the literature has shown robust effects of employment protection on effort, though the effects appear too small to generate marked cross-country differences in labor productivity. The authors revisit this issue using representative data of private-sector workers in Spain. A range of legislative changes aimed at reducing the incidence of temporary employment are used to estimate the effect of permanent employment on one aspect of effort, absenteeism. Results suggest that being employed on a permanent contract increases the probability of being absent from work due to sickness by approximately 5.3 percentage points and the time absent by approximately 0.30 of a day per week. These results suggest that cross-country differences in employment protection have the potential to have a substantial impact on labor productivity.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1177/0019793917717226

Año: 2018

Publicado en: Industrial & labor relations review 71, 2 (2018), 525-549 [32 p.]
ISSN: 0019-7939

Factor impacto JCR: 2.198 (2018)

Categ. JCR: INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & LABOR rank: 8 / 27 = 0.296 (2018) - Q2 - T1

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 2.263 - Management of Technology and Innovation (Q1) - Strategy and Management (Q1) - Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management (Q1)

Tipo y forma: Article (PostPrint)