Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223972 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13530
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
A growing economic literature studies the optimal design of social insurance systems and the empirical identification of welfare-relevant externalities. In this paper, we test whether mandating employee access to paid sick leave has reduced influenza-like-illness (ILI) transmission rates as well as pneumonia and influenza (P&I) mortality rates in the United States. Using uniquely compiled data from administrative sources at the state-week level from 2010 to 2018 along with difference-in-differences methods, we present quasi-experimental evidence that sick pay mandates have causally reduced doctor-certified ILI rates at the population level. On average, ILI rates fell by about 11 percent or 290 ILI cases per 100,000 patients per week in the first year.
Subjects: 
sick pay mandates
population health
flu infection
negative externalities
JEL: 
H23
H75
I12
I14
I18
J22
J38
J58
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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