Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. lacks a federal paid sick leave policy. As a result, many workers must choose between losing earnings and attending to childcare responsibilities. To date, 17 states and the District of Columbia have adopted or announced paid sick leave mandates that...

How do firms adjust their labor demand when a female employee takes temporary leave after childbirth? Using Austrian administrative data, we compare firms with and without a birth event and exploit policy reforms that significantly altered leave durations. We find that (i) firms adjust hiring,...

This paper shows that even moderate air pollution levels, such as those in Europe, harm the economy by reducing firm performance. Using monthly firm-level data from France, we estimate the causal impact of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on sales and worker absenteeism. Leveraging exogenous...

This study examines the relationship between absenteeism and firm performance using data on 1,387 stores of a retail chain, combined with public health data, covering a 36-month period. Crucially, the relationship between absenteeism and sales is not monotonic. Instead, it exhibits an inverted...

Direct evidence on variations in work incentives across different property rights systems remains scarce. This paper examines absenteeism among individuals employed in worker cooperatives - firms that are ultimately controlled by their workforce. By leveraging employment data matched with sick...