Date:Jun 11th,Thurs. 17:15-18:45
Venue: Meeting Room (Room #3403) on the 4th floor of Mercury Tower
Speaker:Mr Kentaro Asai (Kyoto University)
Title:Enhancing Workplace Compliance: The Role of Paid Sick Leave (PSL) Mandates
(Abstract)
Utilizing staggered PSL mandates in the U.S., this paper examines the causal impact of paid sick leave (PSL) on workplace safety compliance. We show that PSL significantly reduces safety violations and associated penalties, enhancing firm value. This resultwithstands a battery of robustness tests. We also show that the impact is stronger in lowunionization settings and less automated industries with higher interpersonal contact. Bydocumenting that PSL improves employees’ perceptions of their employer’s commitment to well-being, we argue that PSL serves as an effective employee health benefit that bolsters safety compliance and reduces regulatory risk, thereby lowering reliance on costly ex-post
enforcement.
Keywords: Paid Sick Leave (PSL), Workplace Misconduct, Employee Health, Human Capital
JEL classification: J32, I18, G38, M14
