This paper studies the effect of having one additional child on parents’ sickness absence and labour earnings. On average, women have higher sickness absence rates than men, both in Sweden and in several other industrialized countries. Despite the fact that this gender gap in sickness absence is well documented, the literature on its determinants is relatively scarce. However, evidence from existing studies suggests that the presence of children, and the number of children, is associated with higher sickness absence for women, but not for men. The purpose of this paper is therefore to study how mothers’ and fathers’ sickness absence and labour earnings are affected by having an additional child, both in the short and the long run.

A deeper understanding of the relationship between family size and sickness absence, and whether such a relationship differs between men and women, is important in order to understand part of the gender differences in the labour market.

Data on individual labour market outcomes and demographic variables are provided by Statistics Sweden, and individual data on sickness absence is provided by the National Social Insurance Agency.