Do interactions between unemployment insurance and sickness insurance affect transitions to employment?
Labour. Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations
2011
25
4
December
447-467
health insurance ; return to work ; social protection ; unemployment benefit
Social protection
dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9914.2011.00532.x
English
Bibliogr.
"Previous research suggests that there are substantial interactions between the unemployment and sickness insurance in Sweden. Moral hazard arises in the interplay between these insurance systems, as by reporting sick an unemployed person can postpone unemployment insurance expiration and sometimes receive considerably higher benefits. I examine whether these interactions affect the transition rate to employment. To do this I use a reform that greatly reduced the incentives to transfer to sickness benefits. Although there is evidence that this reform effectively lowered the incidence of sick reports among the unemployed, I do not find that the reduced sick report rate in turn affected the transition rate to employment."
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