Looking after number two? Competition, cooperation and workplace interaction

We look for cooperation in a real-world setting in which optometrists absent less frequently in two-chair than one-chair offices because of the externality such behavior imposes on their co-worker. We motivate our empirical analysis by developing a model of worker interdependence in which two workers can either compete or cooperate. We show that, relative to a single worker working in isolation, competition unequivocally increases absence whilst cooperation may increase or decrease absence. Our empirical analysis of a unique data set finds explicit support for cooperative behavior.