This paper examines the impact of a policy reform in a municipality in Norway that extended to workers the right to self-certify sickness absence from work. After the reform, workers were no longer obliged to obtain a certificate from a physician to receive sickness benefits. They could call in sick directly to their line leader and had to engage in a counselling program organized by the employer. To estimate the effect of this reform, we contrast the change in sickness absence among employees who were granted the extended right to self-certify absence with absence among employees who had to obtain a physician’s certificate to be entitled to sickness benefits. We use both a standard difference-in-differences method and the synthetic control method to estimate the effect of the reform. We can rule out large positive effects on absence after the reform, with strong evidence that the policy change actually resulted in a reduction in absence for female workers.

本文考察了挪威一个城市的政策改革的影响，该改革将扩大到工人自我证明因病缺勤的权利。改革后，工人不再需要获得医生的证明才能领取疾病津贴。他们可以直接请病假给他们的直线领导，并且不得不参与由雇主组织的咨询计划。为了估计这项改革的效果，我们将获得自我证明缺勤权的员工的病假变化与必须获得医生证明才能获得疾病津贴的员工的缺勤进行了对比。我们同时使用标准差值法和综合控制法来估计改革的效果。