Daylight and absenteeism - Evidence from Norway

- Using data for Norway on a daily level we identify the causal effect of daylight on workers' absenteeism due to sickness.
- Only idiosyncratic variation in daylight between north and south over the year is used to identify the effect.
- One more hour of daylight raises incidence to sickness absence by almost 0.001 percentage point (0.5 percent).
- One more hour of daylight increases recovery from sickness absence by 0.02 percentage points (0.8 percent).
- Overall, more daylight reduces absenteeism as the duration effect dominates the incidence effect.

Based on administrative register data from Norway, we examine the impact of hours of daylight on sick-leave absences among workers. Our preferred estimates imply that an additional hour of daylight increases the daily entry rate to absenteeism by 0.5 percent and the corresponding recovery rate by 0.8 percent, ceteris paribus. The overall relationship between absenteeism and daylight hours is negative. Absenteeism is also sensitive to weather conditions. Heavy snowfall raises the incidence of absence during the winter, while warm weather reduces the probability of returning to work during the summer.