Abstract:
Involuntary absence is often seen as an exogenous factor, but firms can take actions to reduceit. In this paper the notion that firms, especially SMEs, are faced with a single decisionwhether or not to undertake these actions is questioned. A firm model on involuntary absencemeasures is constructed and estimated in which four successive steps are distinguished. Itturns out that this model is supported by the data. Furthermore a clear firm-size effect exists.Larger firms tend to take more precautionary actions than small firms because they havemore attention for work- and health-related topics in general and more easily recognise theinfluence they can exert on the level of involuntary absence.