Essays on health shocks and social insurance

Abstract

Essay I: addresses the relationship between health and socioeconomic status. The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether the, so called, socioeconomic gradient in health arises from socioeconomic hetero-geneity in the impact of health shocks on labor market outcomes.

Essay II: The second and third paper relates, in different ways, to the organization of the public sickness and disability insurance system. Essay  analyzes a reform of the compulsory Swedish sickness insurance. Specifically, I analyze the indirect impact of replacement rates on medium- and long-term sickness absence.

Essay III: examines the effect of poor quality medical certificate on sickness absence durations. Finally, the Essay 4 investigates how socioeconomic status is associated with road accidents. This study also calculates the societal costs of road accidents in terms of lost production.