The indirect costs of work-related stress : evidence from a Swiss workplace survey

Brunner, Beatrice; Wieser, Simon; Keller, Anita; Igic, Ivana

Publication type:	Conference other
Type of review:	No review
Title:	The indirect costs of work-related stress : evidence from a Swiss workplace survey
Authors:	Brunner, Beatrice Wieser, Simon Keller, Anita Igic, Ivana
et. al:	No
Conference details:	iHEA 2019 World Congress on Health Economics, Basel, Switzerland, 13-17 July 2019
Issue Date:	15-Jul-2019
Language:	English
Subject (DDC):	331: Labor economics
Abstract:	Due to continuing structural changes in the working environment, work-related stress has become an increasingly important workplace hazard. While in Switzerland about a quarter of all employees reported to frequently or very frequently experienced stress at work in 2000, ten year later the proportion already amounted to one third, with increasing tendency. We use a representative survey of Swiss employees to estimate the effects of work-related stressors and resources on work productivity, focusing on sickness absenteeism and presenteeism. We measure work productivity and workplace characteristics with well-established instruments and apply both OLS and fixed effects models. We find that adverse health effects are mainly caused by an imbalance between job stressors and resources, and not by the level of job stressors per se. Our preferred estimates imply an elasticity of health-related productivity losses with respect to job stressors of 1.1, with both social and task-related job stressors being about equally important. The elasticity of health-related productivity losses with respect to job resources is estimated at -0.5, with task-related resources dominating social resources. We further find the combination of low job resources and high job stressors to be particularly harmful. Furthermore, employees with low occupational self-efficacy are more negatively affected when working in a “low job resources and high job stressors” combination than employees with high occupational self-efficacy. Finally, the results from a simple counter-factual exercise suggest that job stress might account for as much as 24% of the health-related productivity losses.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/19973
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	School of Management and Law
Organisational Unit:	Winterthur Institute of Health Economics (WIG)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen School of Management and Law

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Brunner, B., Wieser, S., Keller, A., & Igic, I. (2019, July 15). The indirect costs of work-related stress : evidence from a Swiss workplace survey. iHEA 2019 World Congress on Health Economics, Basel, Switzerland, 13-17 July 2019.

Brunner, B. et al. (2019) ‘The indirect costs of work-related stress : evidence from a Swiss workplace survey’, in iHEA 2019 World Congress on Health Economics, Basel, Switzerland, 13-17 July 2019.

B. Brunner, S. Wieser, A. Keller, and I. Igic, “The indirect costs of work-related stress : evidence from a Swiss workplace survey,” in iHEA 2019 World Congress on Health Economics, Basel, Switzerland, 13-17 July 2019, Jul. 2019.

BRUNNER, Beatrice, Simon WIESER, Anita KELLER und Ivana IGIC, 2019. The indirect costs of work-related stress : evidence from a Swiss workplace survey. In: iHEA 2019 World Congress on Health Economics, Basel, Switzerland, 13-17 July 2019. Conference presentation. 15 Juli 2019

Brunner, Beatrice, Simon Wieser, Anita Keller, and Ivana Igic. 2019. “The Indirect Costs of Work-Related Stress : Evidence from a Swiss Workplace Survey.” Conference presentation. In iHEA 2019 World Congress on Health Economics, Basel, Switzerland, 13-17 July 2019.

Brunner, Beatrice, et al. “The Indirect Costs of Work-Related Stress : Evidence from a Swiss Workplace Survey.” iHEA 2019 World Congress on Health Economics, Basel, Switzerland, 13-17 July 2019, 2019.