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.

中文翻译：

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强制带薪病假对健康的外部影响

越来越多的经济文献研究了社会保险制度的优化设计以及与福利相关的外部性的经验性识别。在本文中，我们测试了强制员工使用带薪病假是否降低了美国的流感样疾病（ILI）传播率以及肺炎和流感（P＆I）死亡率。我们使用2010年至2018年各州周级别的行政来源的独特编译数据以及差异方法，我们提供了半实验性的证据，表明病假工资的强制性导致了人口水平上医生认证的ILI率的降低。在第一年，平均每周IIL发病率下降了约11％，即每100,000名患者每周290例ILI病例。