Worker Absenteeism and Sick Pay

Absenteeism is the single most important cause of lost labour time, yet it has received much less scholarly attention than more dramatic forms of industrial disruption, such as strikes. Arguing that any explanation of absence rates must take into account the interests of both employers and employees, this book constructs a model of the markets for absence and sick pay. These are not independent since sick pay affects workers' incentives to be absent, and absences affect employers' willingness to pay sick pay. The book reviews the available empirical evidence relating to both markets, stressing the importance of careful identification of the effect of the price of absence on demand, since this is a crucial quantity for firms' policies. It concludes by discussing the implications of the model for human resources management, and for the role of the state in sick pay provision.

John Treble recently retired as Professor of Economics at Swansea University. He has previously taught and held visiting posts in the UK, North America, Europe and Australia. His work is mainly in labour economics, with some forays into economic history. Professor Treble was the founder of Britain's national labour economics conference, now called the Work and Pensions Economics Group, and served a full term on the founding Committee of the European Society of Labour Economists.

Tim Barmby has held the Jaffrey Chair of Political Economy at the University of Aberdeen since 2004, before which he was Professor of Economics at Durham University. His main academic interest is in the empirical analysis of the incentive effects of labour contracts. He has worked with John Treble on the economic analysis of absenteeism for more than twenty-five years.