Transcript bc_ier-soc_sci_festival

The economic costs
of work-related stress
How to develop the basis for assessing
the value of interventions
Bernard H Casey
Institute for Employment Research
University of Warwick
The economic costs of work-related stress
Structure/subjects covered
1) Estimates of costs and their usage
2) Some comparators and some caveats
3) The implications of the current recession
4) What work needs to be done
The economic costs of work-related stress
Estimates of costs and their usage
1) “10% of GDP” or 0.4% of GDP “costs to Britain”
But what was measured?
2) NICHE “guidance” on workplace interventions
promoting wellbeing in the workplace
Yardstick for cost effectiveness
3) Defining economic cost
Output forgone, not transfer payments
4) Days lost from LFS – the HSE preferred
c13.5m, perhaps 0.25% of GDP
The economic costs of work-related stress
Some comparators and some caveats
1) Comparators (to 13-14m “days lost”)
Strikes c1m (2007) but 12.9m (av. for 1970s)
Obesity-related illness 15-16m (2002, England only)
Smoking-related 34m, alcohol abuse-rel’d 14m (E&W)
2) Caveats
Co-workers make up a part OR poor performance
impacts on co-workers
Long-term/permanent withdrawal (not just absent in
year) or move to lower paid work OR labour
replaceable in slack labour market
If withdrawals counted, costs go to c0.75% of GDP
“Presenteeism” cost almost twice absenteeism
The economic costs of work-related stress
Implications of the current recession
1) Intensification of stress at work
Uncertainty breeds stress
Cost-cutting and productivity-enhancing responses
2) Work improvement policies become a luxury
As with family-friendly practices and policies to
promote disadvantaged groups
3) Short-term benefits with longer-term costs
Losers are employees, employers and society
But keep GDP as yardstick
The economic costs of work-related stress
What work needs to be done
1) Use figures consistently
Give clarity to debate
2) Examine long-term costs
Human capital devaluation and write-off
3) Explore available data further
Longitudinal components of LFS, multivariate
analysis
ELSA, Whitehall Study
Administrative data on IVB
4) Remember endogeneity (self-reported status)
Analyse/model accordingly