We examine the effect of the replacement rule of a social insurance system on sickness absence. The elasticity of absence with respect to the benefit level is a critical parameter in defining the optimal sickness insurance scheme. A pre-determined, piecewise linear policy rule in which the...

We examine the effects of a comprehensive school reform on mental health. The reform postponed the tracking of students into vocational and academic schools from age 11 to age 16. The reform was implemented gradually across Finnish municipalities between 1972 and 1977. We use...

We examine the effects of a comprehensive school reform on mental health. The reform postponed the tracking of students into vocational and academic schools from age 11 to age 16. The reform was implemented gradually across Finnish municipalities between 1972 and 1977. We use...

Outside the U.S., little is known about the labor-market returns to vocational (or polytechnic) postsecondary education. This paper focuses on the labor-market returns to polytechnic bachelor's degrees in Finland. Using detailed administrative data, we estimate person fixed effect models to...

We develop a method to estimate domain-specific risk. We apply the method to sickness insurance by fitting a utility function at the individual level, using European survey data on life satisfaction. Three results stand out. First, relative risk aversion increases with income. Second, marginal...

This paper examines the labor-market returns to a new form of postsecondary vocational education, vocational master's degrees. We use individual fixed effects models on the matched sample of students and non-students from Finland to capture any time-invariant differences across individuals....

This paper examines the labor-market returns to a new form of postsecondary vocational education, vocational master's degrees. We use individual fixed effects models on the matched sample of students and non-students from Finland to capture any time-invariant differences across individuals....