Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Mar;24(1):107-134.
doi: 10.1007/s10754-023-09351-2. Epub 2023 Apr 24.

Are women breaking the glass ceiling? A gendered analysis of the duration of sick leave in Spain

Ángel L Martín-Román  1 , Alfonso Moral  2 , Sara Pinillos-Franco  3
Affiliations

Are women breaking the glass ceiling? A gendered analysis of the duration of sick leave in Spain

Ángel L Martín-Román et al. Int J Health Econ Manag. 2024 Mar.

Abstract

We study the gender gap in the duration of sick leave in Spain by splitting this duration into two types of days - those which are related to biological characteristics and those derived from behavioral reasons. Using the Statistics of Accidents at Work for 2011-2019, we found that women presented longer standard durations (i.e., purely attached to physiological reasons) compared to men. However, when estimating individuals' efficiency as the ratio between actual and standard durations, we found that women were more inefficient at lower levels of income, whereas in case of men, this occurred at higher levels of income. These results were reinforced when considering that men and women do not recover from the same injury at the same rate. Women were more efficient than men across all the compensation distribution, especially at higher income levels.

Keywords: Gender; Glass ceiling; Moral hazard; Stochastic frontiers; Workplace injuries.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
TI benefits. Source: Own elaboration
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Data cleansing flow chart. Source: Own elaboration
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Quadratic prediction of efficiency using compensation by sex and type of injury: Specifications I and II. Notes: Dotted lines represent 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Source: Own elaboration based on SAW data
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Quadratic prediction of efficiency using compensation by sex and type of injury: Specifications III and IV. Notes: Dotted lines represent 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Source: Own elaboration based on SAW data
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Quadratic prediction of EF in the service sector using compensation by sex. Notes: Dotted lines represent 95% confidence intervals. Source: Author’s own based on SAW data
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Quadratic prediction of EF for skilled workers using compensation by sex. Notes: Dotted lines represent 95% confidence intervals. Source: Author’s own based on SAW data
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Estimated EF by sex, percentile of the compensation, and type of injury: specifications without sex in the frontier. Source: Own elaboration based on SAW data
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Estimated EF by sex, percentile of the compensation, and type of injury: specifications with sex in the frontier. Source: Own elaboration based on SAW data
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Aigner D, Lovell CAK, Schmidt P. Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models. Journal of Econometrics. 1977;6(1):21–37. doi: 10.1016/0304-4076(77)90052-5. - DOI
    1. Ásgeirsdóttir TL, Jóhannsdóttir HM. Income-related inequalities in diseases and health conditions over the business cycle. Health Economics Review. 2017;7(1):1–17. doi: 10.1186/S13561-017-0150-X/FIGURES/2. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bauer T, Göhlmann S, Sinning M. Gender differences in smoking behavior. Health Economics. 2007;16(9):895–909. doi: 10.1002/HEC.1259. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bechtel, A. J., & Huffmyer, J. L. (2020). Gender differences in postoperative outcomes after cardiac surgery. In Anesthesiology Clinics (Vol. 38(2), pp. 403–415). W.B. Saunders. 10.1016/j.anclin.2020.01.007 - PubMed
    1. Boone J, van Ours JC. Are recessions good for workplace safety? Journal of Health Economics. 2006;25(6):1069–1093. doi: 10.1016/J.JHEALECO.2006.03.002. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources