The effect of the 2009 influenza pandemic on labor market outcomes

Abstract

In July 2009, the World Health Organization declared the first flu pandemic in nearly 40 years. Although the health effectsof the pandemic have been studied, there is little research examining the labor productivity consequences. Using unique sickleave data from the Chilean private health insurance system, we estimate the effect of the pandemic on missed days of work.We estimate that the pandemic increased mean flu days missed by 0.042 days per person-month during the 2009 peak wintermonths (June and July), representing an 800% increase in missed days relative to the sample mean. Calculations using theestimated effect imply a minimum 0.2% reduction in Chile’s labor supply.