Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Rhian Daniel, University of Cardiff, UK
- Second opponent: Professor Jan Terje Kvaløy, University of Stavanger,
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Henning Øien, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Tone Kristin Omsland, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Jon Michael Gran, University of Oslo
Summary
The Norwegian agreement on a more inclusive working life, the IA agreement, was initiated in 2001 and had the aim of reducing sickness absence (SA) and increase work participation in the Norwegian labour force. This thesis seeks to answer the question of whether reductions in SA is a causal effect of the IA agreement. To address this question, we use so-called multi-state models to analyse observational data from several large registries containing (among other things) registrations over time of individual events of SA. These models are particularly useful because they can take into account two key aspects of SA dynamics: (a) that individuals can have recurrent periods of SA and (b) that the duration of SA is of key interest. Our findings suggests that, in certain settings, the IA-agreement have had the intended effect of reducing SA and we discuss ways of quantifying how different parts of the agreement contribute to this effect. We also address how one can avoid or loosen a common though problematic assumption for multi-state models, the so-called Markov assumption.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.