The Role of Social Capital and Welfare in Absenteeism Across 26 OECD Countries: Moderating Effect on Employment and Working Conditions

Abstract

Objectives: This study attempted to investigate social contextual effect on the occurrence of workers' absenteeism.

Methods: Survey data on 30,913 wage workers in 26 countries were linked to the indicators for social capital and welfare from the national database. Multi-level logistic regression was used for analyses.

Results: Employment contract, atypical work, physical and psycho-social working conditions (effort and reward), social capital and welfare significantly explained the differences in occurrence of absenteeism across countries. Analysis of cross-level interactions revealed that macro indicators related to social capital, and public social and health expenditure had moderating effects on the relation between individual-level factors and absenteeism.

Conclusion: High level of public spending on welfare policies and social bonding decrease the risk of absenteeism caused by vulnerable working environments, but it also worsen gaps in coping capabilities of workers in non-permanent contract and atypical work pattern.