Workplace Health Promotion and Labour Market Performance of Employees

41 Pages Posted: 12 Jul 2014

See all articles by Martin Huber

Martin Huber

University of Fribourg

Michael Lechner

University of St. Gallen - Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research

Conny Wunsch

University of Basel; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); University of St. Gallen

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Abstract

This paper investigates the average effects of (firm-provided) workplace health promotion measures in form of the analysis of sickness absenteeism and health circles/courses on labour market out-comes of the firms' employees. Exploiting linked employer-employee panel data that consist of rich survey-based and administrative information on firms, workers and regions, we apply a flexible propensity score matching approach that controls for selection on observables as well as on time-constant unobserved factors. While the effects of analysing sickness absenteeism appear to be rather limited, our results suggest that health circles/courses increase tenure and decrease the number of job changes across various age groups. A key finding is that health circles/courses strengthen the labour force attachment of elderly employees (51-60), implying potential cost savings for public transfer schemes such as unemployment or early retirement benefits.

Keywords: firm health policies, health circles, health courses, analysis of sickness absenteeism, matching

JEL Classification: I10, I19, J32

Suggested Citation

Huber, Martin and Lechner, Michael and Wunsch, Conny, Workplace Health Promotion and Labour Market Performance of Employees. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8297, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2465332 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2465332

Martin Huber (Contact Author)

University of Fribourg ( email )

Bd de Pérolles 90
Fribourg, Fribourg CH-1700
Switzerland

Michael Lechner

University of St. Gallen - Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research ( email )

Varnbuelstrasse 14
St. Gallen, 9000
Switzerland
+41 71 224 2320 (Phone)

Conny Wunsch

University of Basel ( email )

Petersplatz 1
Basel, CH-4003
Switzerland

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

University of St. Gallen ( email )

Dufourstrasse 50
St. Gallen, 9000
Switzerland

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